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A retired teacher in my Tuesday book group told me my discussion questions were too easy, and she was right
For two years I ran our book club by handing out questions like "what did you think of the ending," and everyone would just nod and move on to the cheese plate. Then Dorothy, who taught 8th grade English for 31 years, said flat out that I was letting people off the hook and that a good question should make somebody uncomfortable. Now I pick one hard question per book, like whether the main character was actually a good mother, and the talk goes twice as long, so how do you all push your group past the polite stuff?
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olivia_lewis91h ago
Dorothy sounds like a gift, honestly. My group had the same problem where we just talked about whether we liked the book and then ate cookies. We started doing one tough question too, stuff like "would you have forgiven her" or "who was really the bad guy here" and it gets people going. The quiet ones suddenly have a lot to say because now there is something on the line. It also helps when the leader does not jump in to save everyone right away, just let the awkward silence sit there for a sec. People will fill it, and that is when the good stuff comes out.
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