So I got this idea for next year, and I'm mulling it over in my head. Any thoughts as to if this would work? Any ideas on how to make it better?

I am always looking for ways to motivate my students-we did podcasting last year, and the reading group that got the highest cum. score the day before on the comprehension quiz got the voice recorder to record their book discussion. This worked well, and they really encouraged each other to read for meaning so they would score well as a group. But I hate only rewarding one group (we only had one recorder).

So what if you had a Friday Book Tea? And if a group got above an 80% on Thursday's comprehension quiz, then they could have tea or hot chocolate on Friday during discussion time. You could even have little cookies or sandwiches, too. You could teach them about the history of tea, tea etiquette and then tell them they had to use all their tea knowledge when discussing the books. Just an idea, but it might make discussion time more meaningful and grown up. You could collect teacups and mugs from freecycle.org or Goodwills.

Maybe you work on independent reading through mini lessons during the week, and have a class novel or small book clubs that discuss on Friday, so it's truly a special time where they are discussing something different than the other days. Like I said, I'm still running this around in my brain. Any ideas?  If so, e-mail kjem182@yahoo.com.

Student Led Book Clubs- Great step-by-step plans for teaching students how to discuss their reading.

Video of a Book Discussion- I've been thinking for years that students need to SEE other students discussing a book properly before they will understand how to do it themselves.  Show this to your students as a great model.

Fantastic idea from Corene:
For Valentine's Day this year, we had a MADHATTER'S TEA PARTY!  It was a blast! What about having a map of Alice In Wonderland adventures and having  a goal that you work your way through? Then, when the goal is met, have a huge tea party at the end of the year. I told my kids they could dress up in their church clothes, dress like a character in Alice In Wonderland, or dress totally MAD!

We had tons of goodies for the party. One parent sent a tons of Little Debbies (they were small, cute, and fancy). I left them in the packages but served them out of hats. I bought bonnets at the Dollar Tree for the girls and black hats (like the Blue's Brothers) for the boys at a party supply store. The day before the Tea Party we decorated them. Even the boys enjoyed it and got a little crazy with their MAD HATS.

I brought my lace table clothes. A grandmother donated 5 matching glass flower vases. I brought my fancy hats from home. I bought some huge cards, for decoration, at the party supply store. I also found some cute heart shaped cards...we hung these from the lights. I bought lots of tule and we used tons of white and red christmas lights.

You might make it a contest to see who gets to be the King and Queen. I am going to have a King and Queen of Hearts next year. If they reach their goal for the week they can put their name in a special box.