Public school children between the grades of Kindergarten and 6th grade have often been seriously undervalued in terms of literary analysis. Offering them a chance to express their feelings and thoughts about what has been read can get them to better understand aspects like literal writing and author intent.
So how would you get a literature discussion group started in elementary school? The answer to this is actually not all that complex. There are a few options, depending on what you do within this school.
A Student's Approach to Literature Dialogs
As a student this can be something you just set up as extracurricular, either before school starts or just after school. The ideal meeting place would be the school library. You can encourage your peers to read a book that you are reading and get together to talk about it.
A Teacher's Approach to Literature and Debate
Teachers can do this as well when it comes to encouraging your students to get out and read. When you assign them something to read, even something from the textbook that's fiction based, you can help them start literary analysis of what they've read to understand it better. This is a question and answer kind of forum, which could lead to healthy debate or discussion regarding different interpretations.
Of course the debate and discussion will be better and more thought provoking with 6th graders than it will with 1st graders. So make sure that you can choose a book for the class to read, or read them a book throughout the semester that is easy for them to understand and interpret.
