Hooking Student Into Choosing Good Fit Books
Beth Lawson confers with a student
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A: There are many children who posses the skill to choose Good Fit Books but they aren't hooked on books enough to have the desire to pick them successfully on their own. We find those types of students have not only been around since the beginning of our careers and are in every school and classroom across the world, they are not alone. You see, if we had a dime for every adult we have met who is able to pick books but doesn't choose to read....well you know the saying! Aliteracy in our society is an interesting and frightening phenomenon. Those of us who love to read cannot imagine life without one or more books, magazines and newspapers on our bedside table, littering our homes, and loaded onto our Kindles. So is there a specific skill we can teach students to choose Good Fit Books on their own? Sadly, it is not as simple as teaching a skill. It is more about inspiring these students to be readers and fall in love with books, authors and genres. One of the teachers who wrote in with this question asked for "some magic" to encourage these students. We're not sure about magic, but here are some ideas we have tried in our classrooms to kindle the passion for reading.
Each week set aside a time for student and teacher 'book talks' where they share a favorite book they are either currently reading or just finished. Place those books in a specific location with a sticky note on the front indicating who recommended the book. Invite other teachers, parents, community members to do the same.
Work with the school librarian, public librarian and local bookstore in the area to have students write up recommendations, just a line or two why they love the book, and attach to the front of books. Kids want to read the books others have recommended, and are thrilled to recommend as well!
Help students 'get started' on a series, genre or author. Sometimes the first 20 or so pages can make or break a book for a student. One of my at risk readers was a perfect candidate for this type of support. A month prior to the end of school, I sat with him each day for about 5 minutes and read aloud the first of The Magic Treehouse books. Every meeting I took the time to help build his background knowledge of the characters, settings, etc. When he finished the first book, I did the same for the next. I actually helped him 'get started' on the first three books of the series. To my surprise and delight he returned at the end of the summer break having read every book in the series, was ready for another series and best of all, not only had not lost ground in reading over the summer, but had made progress and turned into what he called himself, "A real live reader!"
Hang a blank sheet of butcher paper on the door titled, "Books You've Gotta Read!" Anyone can stop and place their name, and title of the book there. We even had other students place their room number by their recommendation so kids in my class could come find them to borrow the book. There is something contagious about passionate readers...so once we get the conversations going and create a climate where book commercials are a part of our everyday life, the passion in others will undoubtedly be ignited.
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