• What is a tea party?
• When do we use it?
• How do we use it?

A Tea Party is:

A social event where students try to talk with as many people as possible within the frame time of 20 minutes. Students receive excerpts from the text and should discuss it with as many class mates as possible.

When do we use it?

It is great as a pre-reading activity to guess what the text is about. It can also be used as a post reading activity to express opinions about the text.

How do we use it?

1. Make a card for each student with an excerpt from the text.
2. Call the students one by one to draw a card.
3. Give them time to read the excerpt and understand it.
4. Explain that in a tea party, people want to talk to as many people as possible.
5. Tell the students to walk around the room to find a partner to discuss the quotation with.
6. Each of the students take turn to read his/her quote to the partner and discuss it.
7. They continue to find a different partner.
8. Volunteers are invited to share something they have learned from a participant in the tea party.

I really love the activities in this book. 

Source:  60 Strategies for Improving Reading Comprehension in Grades K-8 by Kathleen Johnson