35
A READING CAFE
Objectives
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to promote reading for enjoyment
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to establish a reading habit
•
to develop reading comprehension
skills
Setting, materials and preparation
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Tables with tablecloths and flowers, drinks, cakes, books, laptops
Step-by-Step Description
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Set up a room as a café, with tablecloths and flowers on the tables, cakes and
drinks available. Set out multiple copies of books from the library on the
tables.
•
Invite a group of children to visit the reading café.
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Ask the children to read the first chapter whilst eating their cakes and drinking
their beverages. Ideally, this should take about 10-15 minutes.
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Allow the children to initiate a discussion about what they have read and
predict what might happen next in the story.
•
Children to use the laptops to record their thoughts, either as a wiki page or as
an individual blog.
•
Encourage the children to read the next few chapters before the next café
session.
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At the next meeting, discuss what actually happened in the book and compare
with their initial thoughts on the book.
•
A teacher could ask pertinent questions to move the discussion forward and
the group read the next chapter independently and records their thoughts
once more.
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The meetings continue until the group have finished the book
•
At the final meeting, the children use the computer to write a shot
recommendation to publish on a class website.
Sources
