Literary Lunch Bunch Program

Literary Lunch Bunches are fun, informal Literature Circles that kids attend on a voluntary basis. The program is called Literary Lunch Bunch because you hold the meetings during lunch, in your classroom or another quiet area (such as outside at a picnic table).

You can select a book that you like, or you can ask the kids what they would like to read. Let the interest level and the abilities of your students determine the reading pace. I generally divide a novel into 4 parts, and we take 2 weeks to read the book. We have 2 meetings a week, for example on Tuesday and Friday. I have learned that if you take any longer to read the book, kids lose interest and drop out. If you use the Reading workshop approach, students can do the reading during class. If not, they may need to complete their reading at home.

This model is very similar to the Classroom Book Clubs model except that students meet during lunch rather than during the reading block or at some other time during the school day. The only requirement for attending the Lunch Bunch meetings is to read the assigned section and complete the Lunch Bunch Bookmark. They use these bookmarks to jot down things they want to discuss in the meeting. You don't have to require any type of assignment, but the meetings are more exciting when kids have taken time to think about what they want to discuss.

Students never receive any type of grade for their participation in a Literary Lunch Bunch. If they haven't done the reading or filled out the slip, they can't attend that day's meeting. If they are prepared for the next meeting, they may join in again. Literary Lunch Bunches are purely for the joy of reading!