Managing an ER program by myself for 105 students, without Graded Readers, I needed help developing my small book collection (100 titles), and therefore designed a few classroom activities to encourage reading, discussion and positive interdependence, while supporting the growth of the program at the same time. In this short presentation, I will introduce two interaction-rich group activities (“book recommendation” and “designing quizzes”) and one individual writing activity (“book review”), while presenting some examples and feedback from my students. By picking new books, designing quizzes and reviewing books for their schoolmates, many became more confident, as they saw themselves as members of a lively reading community.

I teach French as a foreign language in a Japanese university, to beginner to low-intermediate level students, but am confident that these activities will be useful in many contexts, and even with Graded Readers.