Discussion Activity for Students

Your students just finished collectively reading a book. Whether that book was read during an interactive read aloud, whole class novel, literature circle, guided reading, or a book club, you want students to experience some kind of closure with the book before just moving on. Giving students a chance to talk about the book in a small group setting invites appreciation for the book, and it also allows students to sort out any confusion or unresolved frustration about the book’s ending.

In this blog post, I am going to share a small group discussion activity that can be used after students collectively read any fiction book. This is an activity that I’ve used several times with students, and I love the results this discussion format produces. Here is a step-by-step tutorial on how to use this discussion activity with success.

Step One: Grouping Students

Put students in small groups of 4-5. If students were reading a book in literature circles, guided reading, or book clubs and there were several books being read in your classroom at the same time, then these groups are straightforward to make. Students are grouped with the students who read the same book as them. If there were some larger book groups of 7-8 students reading the same book, consider dividing this larger group into two smaller groups for the purpose of this activity. If the book was read as an interactive read aloud or whole class novel and all students just finished the same book, divide students into groups of 4-5.

Step Two: Model Discussion Preparation

Use the “End of Book Group Discussion” sheet and fill the sheet out using a book all students are familiar with from a previous reading unit. Share with students how you completed the sheet to show them the quality you expect for the group discussions to be enjoyable and engaging.

Step Three: Model a Discussion

Have 4-5 student volunteers gather in a circle in the middle of the classroom and have all other students form an outer circle around them. Model to students how the structure of their conversation will look by reading the directions to students from the top of the “End of Book Group Discussion” sheet. As a reminder, these directions are:

1. Fill in the “Discussion Preparation” column before meeting with your group.
2. Once you’re in your book group, pick a discussion director.
3. The discussion director asks the first question listed in the “Discussion Questions” column.
4. Each person goes around and shares their response to each question.
5. As others are sharing their responses, write down any new thoughts in the “New Takeaways” column.
6. Move on to the next question and repeat the process.
7. After all the discussion questions have been asked, each person share one “New Takeaway” and go on to discuss any other questions group members came up with.

Step Four: Discussion Preparation

Give all students silent work time to independently prepare for the “End of Book Group Discussion.” 15-20 minutes should be about the right amount of time for students to fill out the discussion preparation with quality.

Step Five: Position the Groups

Spread the groups out around your classroom and make sure each group is sitting in a circle so that they can all see and hear each other speak. This is also a great time to remind students of some common group norms they should follow during the discussion.

1. Speak at a volume so the other students in your group can clearly hear you, but not so loud that students from other groups will be distracted by your voice volume.
2. Give eye contact to the person whose turn it is to speak and be a respectful listener.
3. Keep the conversation on topic and focused on the book.

Step Six: Group Discussion

Now that you’ve set students up for a successful discussion, give students time to discuss their books using the discussion structure and their preparation provided. I recommend allowing at least 20 minutes for the discussions to take place.

Next time your class finishes reading a book, try this out and see how their discussions go. This is something that can be repeated several times across the school year. Students will get better at using this structure and discussing books each time they practice.

Make sure to go download a free PDF of this discussion activity, end of book discussion questions, and a PDF of a filled out discussion activity by clicking here.

For more reading lesson ideas, make sure you check out my “Grab and Go Reading Lessons” linked here. You can also view full reading units made especially for middle school students linked here.