Adult Group Discussion – Book Advice

[TheStumblerParticipant Total Posts: 4]

Any suggestions for a book which would be good to use in a small group setting? Say 3 to 5 adults. For the most part these are college educated working professionals

[DrKnowKeymaster Total Posts: 492]

A couple of Mark Haddon books spring to mind, like A Spot of Bother or The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.

Shorter books are always good: The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson is quirky and fun.

If they have an interest in Korean lit, there is a series of shorts/novellas in good English translation published by Jimoondang called the Portable Library of Korean Literature.

HTH.

[AndyKeymaster Total Posts: 99]

Alternativey if you are looking for an actual language teaching book, you could try the Q series or Market Leader if they want something business centric.

If it is like a book club discussion, I have always had good luck with Jodi Picault novels (although I am not much of a fan myself), and in my experience Korean people love self-help style books like Tuesdays with Maurie and crap like that.

[TheStumblerParticipant Total Posts: 4]

I wasn’t thinking of a book for the students to read, although I am now considering that.

Rather, I was thinking of a book of topics and suggestions for group discussions, targeting the group leader. I did find this website which has quite an bunch of such topics, but I’d still welcome any similar resources.

http://iteslj.org/questions/

[AndyKeymaster Total Posts: 99]

Make them do the work. Each class have the students do a short (2-3) minute talk* about a topic of their choosing. Then build your discussion around the stuff they talk about.

Another thing I do is keep a notebook handy and write down anything that comes to mind during the course of the day. This usually leads to topics that are more…Uh.. topical than stuff found in old lists online.

*I call this “speaking marathon” and I set a maximum time of 4:00 per talk and no minimum time. It allows the students to pick topics they are interested in and gets then comfortable talking in front of a group. No pressure on time, just talk about something. But, I do keep a little board with a race course on it, and move them around according to their times. It is kind of like a game, so they get a bit competitive, and it takes a lot of pressure off preparing speaking topics for class.

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