Page Turners Book Club with Beth
I was able to watch a recording of Beth’s Page Turners book club for our teenagers this week. Having been a visitor to Beth’s lessons in the past, I was expecting her to be sharing her love of all things books and I wasn’t disappointed!
The session started really informally with many of the children saying hello and chatting with Beth in the chat or by talking. It was immediately clear that Beth had great relationships with these young people – she knows them and they know her! It felt immediately like a really safe space, where it is perfectly okay to be yourself and get excited about reading!
They are currently reading a book called The Middler by Kirsty Applebaum. They are only a few chapters in but it was clear everyone was hooked!
There was a short quiz at the start, with children commenting their answers in the chat or circling them on the screen. Like in so many LLP lessons, it was perfectly okay to circle the answers, tick the answers, draw a smiley face next to the answer. In other words, it was perfectly okay to respond in the way that the student wanted to. What I really liked was that Beth was gently teasing out more detailed answers from the students with comments like “yes you are right- but why do you think that the author wrote it that way?” The students might not all have wanted to speak out loud, but they all seemed confident to give their opinions in their own way and develop their ideas.
My favourite part of the lesson was when one of the students showed up a cuddly toy dinosaur and explained to the new students that this was for some reason the class mascot! I have no idea why the dinosaur has become the class mascot, but it just showed me that this group are used to having fun together and are keen to share that fun with newcomers.
There was a short writing task as well as a “find the information in the text” exercise, which was a brilliant way to practise that all important skill of text analysis that anyone who wants to study English at GCSE level will need.
The final part of the lesson was the reading of the next chapter. 3 of the students volunteered to ready (and read brilliantly!) and Beth read too. It felt like they were sharing a cosy hour together more than a lesson.
Closing thoughts from Beth
I asked Beth to tell me her thoughts on the Page Turners book club, which I will share below. If you attend Page Turners, or your child does, please do comment below to share your experience of this club or any of Beth’s lessons. Beth also teachers our Focus on English classes, lots of our GCSE English classes and our Shakespeare class for Key Stage 3 (which is another great one for anyone who loves to read and get creative!)
“I love Page Turners as it’s such a fantastic place to share your enthusiasm for books. Whether students are avid bookworms or just like the thought of being emerged in a good book, everyone has made friends and has found a space to thoroughly enjoy literature. We explore dystopian worlds, enchanted worlds, romantic worlds and so much more so there really is something for everyone!”
Beth