5 ideas that will inspire high school students to read more

Also known as book clubs, literature circles are groups that meet regularly so that participants can discuss what they are reading with others. Traditionally, the group will choose one book that everyone will read, reflect upon, and then discuss together. These meetings allow students to exchange ideas, draw connections between what they are reading and their personal lives, and develop more autonomy when it comes to discussing books with others.
Literature circles will provide students with the following benefits:

• Enhancing their motivation to read
• Increasing their ability to understand and interpret a text
• Forging a spirit of community
• Improving their communication and listening skills
• Etc.

Literature circles can take various forms:

• In class
• Outside of school (in Quebec, many public libraries have book clubs for teens)
• In a virtual environment, such as via videoconference
• In a physical space, such as the school library
• With or without a facilitator, etc.

Teenagers from disadvantaged communities often have limited access to reading resources and activities. This can result in a decreased motivation to read. A good way to get high school students more excited about reading is by inviting authors to your school to talk about their craft and creative process, what inspires them, books they have written, etc. To help promote this practice, the Ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec has created the Répertoire culture-éducation. The site features thousands of resources, including proposals from writers who offer in-class workshops. You can filter search results by discipline, literary genre, grade level, language, etc. Remote workshops via videoconference are also available.

Here are a few activities you can do to help prepare your students for an author visit:

• Familiarize them with the author’s biography and bibliography
• Read some of the author’s work
• Come up with questions for them (e.g., how do you become a writer? How did you come up with this character? What are your sources of inspiration? What are your favourite books and movies?)
• Ask your students to bring their own copies of the author’s books to class so that the author can sign them
• Invite parents to learn more about the guest by sending them links and recommended readings
• Etc.

When students are given a chance to choose their own reading material, they have a higher chance of becoming motivated and engaged. Positive outcomes of this approach include:

• Greater awareness of how important and useful reading is for their development
• A more positive perception of their reading skills and their ability to succeed
• Etc.

In order to support students with this initiative and help them come up with activities, you can conduct a brainstorming session to come up with concrete and realistic ideas they can implement. Here are a few example of ideas you might come up with:

• Write a short film script inspired by a book
• Hold a poetry slam
• Create video poems
• Make zines
• Put on a play
• Write songs
• Draw a comic strip
• Edit excerpts to make them funny
• Come up with parodies
• Etc.

Students often associate reading activities with being at school. And yet, in high school, students use ICT and a variety of media to read different types of text, such as web pages and blogs, letters and emails, music lyrics, magazines, novels and short stories, comic books, social media posts, in-game messages, etc. We can take advantage of the ever-increasing presence of new tech and social networks to make teens realize how much reading they do every day.

There are also several online initiatives designed to get students interested in reading. Here is an example. Wattpad is a website for teens aged 13 years and up that hosts a virtual community of readers and authors. Visitors get to read and comment on texts that others have written.

More and more influencers are taking advantage of the reach and visibility that social media has to offer to post their own book reviews. So-called bookfluencers have sizeable followings on platforms such as Instagram and TikTok, as well as YouTube, where they are known as BookTubers. Most high school students should be able to name a few stars of the BookTube community (Hello Kimmy, La Boîte à B.D., Mel Jannard, and annelitterarum are a few major Quebec-based ones). One way to encourage young people to develop their critical thinking skills and enhance their awareness of the literary scene is to reach them through digital channels (while reminding them to always be cautious about what they view and share on the web). Inviting your students to think outside the box and make a short video where they will get to talk about their favourite books is sure to be a lot of fun.

For teachers, video presentations may be easier to grade than oral presentations, since videos can be replayed but oral presentations cannot. If your class likes the idea, you can also submit their videos to a BookTube Contest (this one is in French only). Entering a contest can be a great way to get students to feel proud about how much they are reading. For more high school reading suggestions, check out this directory, which Alloprof has created just for parents. New titles are added regularly!