29
A READING CAFE
Objectives
to promote reading for enjoyment
to establish a reading habit
to develop reading comprehension
skills
Setting, materials and preparation
Tables with tablecloths and flowers, drinks, cakes, books, laptops
Step-by-Step Description
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.
Ask the children to read the first chapter whilst eating their cakes and drinking
their beverages. Ideally, this should take about 10-15 minutes.
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.
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.
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
