Back to School ~ Creating Community with Book Recommendations

As our students come back to school we can't wait to hear about the adventures they have had and the great books they have read. One of the best ways to create a community of readers in the classroom is by giving students the opportunity to recommend books to each other.

Some teachers find it helpful to give students guidelines for sharing.

For fiction: tell us the title of your book, the author, the genre, who the main characters are, and the problem they had to solve. But be careful you don't give away the ending!

For non-fiction: tell us the title of your book, the author, the main topic, something that surprised you, something that you learned, and a question you still have.

In addition to giving students time to talk about great books they've read, consider some of these ways for them to share book recommendations:

• create a bulletin board display
  
• write a book recommendation
  
• create a podcast
• write a blog post
  
• create a book trailer (pdf)
  

Giving students lots of opportunities to recommend books to each other is one of the best ways to effectively create a community of engaged and excited readers in your classroom.

Welcome back!

Get Out of the Reading Rut!

Are your students stuck in a reading rut? Reading the same author or genre over and over? Are they bored with the books in your classroom library? Are you looking for a way to infuse your independent reading time with energy and excitement? Find out more about an approach developed by teacher Andrea Smith when she decided to create a classroom ritual to share, read and enjoy nonfiction texts with her students every week.

Simple in nature, Expedition Monday incorporates the workshop elements of sharing, time to read, independent choices, and community. Our intention is to discover the unlimited supply of nonfiction resources that surround us. Children are simply given time to explore self-selected topics free from the guidelines of our content studies. The effects of this routine and ritual have been far reaching, and just like Poetry Friday, have made a significant difference in the lives of my students. - Andrea Smith

To learn more about Expedition Mondays and how to integrate it into your Reading Workshop read Expedition Mondays: Launching the Week with Nonfiction by Andrea Smith at Choice Literacy. Rekindle your students' passion for reading and learning with nonfiction!

RESOURCES

Nonfiction Book Lists:

NCTE Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children

Through The Looking Glass Children’s Book Review

Informational Texts Using the 3-2-1 Strategy
Lesson Overview
Being able to effectively read informational texts is a fundamental quality of successful readers. In this lesson, students learn to use the 3-2-1 strategy, which involves writing about three things they discovered, two things they found interesting, and one question they still have. After teacher modeling, students read a magazine article independently and use the 3-2-1 strategy to comprehend what they read. This strategy can easily be adapted for use with Expedition Mondays.

VACATION READING

If you are a reader, you probably have a small stack of books put aside that you are looking forward to reading during the holiday break. As readers we do not always have enough time to read, but we always have a book or two waiting to be read.


Not so with our reluctant and struggling readers who not only have trouble finding books they like but making time to read as well. We can teach those students how to choose 'just right' books but if they never sit down to read them, they will not improve as readers.


Franki Sibberson, a teacher and writer, gives her students a few guiding questions to help them find the time to read during vacation.

1. When will you have time over vacation to read? Will it be short bursts or long periods of time?
2. Will you be in the car or on a plane for a long time? What kind of books might you take?
3. What places will you visit that you might like to read about?
4. What magazines or quick reads would you like to have on hand for short bursts of reading?
5. Which relatives might you like to read with? What might you read to/with them?

With a little planning and a couple of 'just right' books to take home all of our students can return from winter vacation more practiced readers!

Finding that 'Just Right' Book

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If you're like me, you sometimes have trouble finding a 'just right book'. Because it's not just about how hard the words are. I can read all the words in every book in the library, but only some of them are 'just right' for me. I've discovered that a 'just right book' is one I enjoy reading.

I have to really like the characters to spend time with them in a book! Here's a tip. Once I've found a character I love, I know I will enjoy reading other books about them!

Now the Webster Public Library has created a website called The Children's Series Binder that makes it easy to find the all titles of books in a series by author or genre. Once you know the titles, start a Books I Want to Read booklist!

Did you just love reading about the adventures of the four friends in one of Jon Scieszka's Time Warp Trio books? A quick search on the Series Binder and I discovered that in addition to the 16 books in the Time Warp series, the author has also written 4 Time Warp Trio graphic novels.

Did you read Amber Brown is not a Crayon? Want to read more about Amber? Another search showed me the titles of all 9 Amber Brown books by Paula Danzinger and 6 more easy books about Amber written at a beginning reader level.

Reading books in a series is my number one tip for finding a 'just right' book!

Happy reading!