What is a reading club?

What is a reading club?

Introduction
	People who are learning to read need to be encouraged to continue using and developing their new skills.
	Reading clubs are one way to promote reading. They are a good way
	to establish a reading habit to expose readers to a variety of literature, including advanced reading materials to move new readers from "learning" to "reading" to promote reading fluency and comprehension to promote reading for enjoyment to provide a social context for promoting literacy, and to teach readers to find information in printed text.

Definition
	A reading club is a group that meets regularly to read and to discuss what they are reading.

Features

Here are some features of a reading club:

A reading club should consist of 15 or fewer people.
It should meet regularly.
It should have a helper or teacher who
- has been trained as a leader or facilitator
- reads fluently, comprehends well, can write well, and
- serves as a model for the group.
The reading club should have access to local language reading materials. Material should be relevant and interesting and should cause people to think about what they are reading.
Examples:
Articles

Stories

Newspapers

Poems

Songs

Text books

Kinds
	Here are some kinds of reading clubs:
	Those who meet to read aloud to each other or in unison and discuss what they are reading Those who participate in an extensive, graded fluency and comprehension course

See also
	What is a reading circle?
	See the following online articles for more information:
	On reading club curricula Reading clubs, reading circles (study circles), and libraries Reading clubs

Sources
	Evans 1989 Marmor 1989 Porter 1984

Context for this page:

Page content last modified: 16 March 1999