QUESTION: Spicing up the "How to Choose a Book" discussion.

[Joanna Drusin]

Hi MS Team! 

Every fall I need a thoughtful way of getting independent reading books to my 6th graders.  I like to teach a BRIEF "how to choose a book" lesson, before letting them loose in the library. 

The goal is to discourage what I often see later in the year

The scene:

Student A to Student B:  what should I read? 

Student B to Student A: Oh, read this, it's really good. 

(Student A borrows book without second thought)

Does anyone have resources or ideas on how to teach this lesson in a more exciting way than just a discussion of how to choose a book?  (Typically, we talk about genre, length, author, level of difficulty...but it feels a little bland)

In other news, I've found two websites that can help students choose books...maybe they will be useful to you!

http://www.bookadventure.com/book_finder.aspx

http://www.scholastic.com/bookwizard/

xo

Joanna

www.mapsandmemories.edublogs.org

[Michelle Miclette]

I display several books around the room - on tables, desks, any available flat surface-about 2 or 3 per student. The students have 2minutes to find a book they might want to read. they then have a brief time (about 5 minutes) to examine the book and begin reading. fter 5 minutes they write a brief entry in their Reading Journals about why they might want or not want to read the book. They return the book and have 2 minutes to find another one, repeating the process two more times. Hopefully they are interested in at least one of the books they explored. My students enjoy this because they are timed so it feels like a game; they are intrigued by their classmate's choices; they see and pick up books that might have languished on a bookshelf; they have to think about the books because they have to write about them; and they have a short list of books to refer to in the future. Good luck!

[Kim Davis]

We use our team mascot as a jumping off point for book recommendations. I have cut outs of gators and the students write the title author and their name when they have read a book they want to add to the Gator Great Reads. They stick it to the wall by genre and write on the gator whether it can be found in the school media center or my library.

We also do a book pass when going to the library. They have their readers notebooks, I choose high interest books from the media center or by subject, like when we do our survival unit, I pull books and set them out for our visit that quailfy as having a survival theme. The kids love it because it gives them time to really look over the books. Students have a " books to read" page in their notebook where they can write down titles and have a list when they finish their current book.

Good luck!