Book Tasting

Posted on December 19, 2013 by Karin Schreier Hallett

One challenge I face as a school librarian is to make sure my students are exposed to a wide variety of books. So when I read Andy Plemmons’ post about book tasting (who was inspired by Buffy Hamilton), I knew it was something I wanted to try with my students. For my 3rd grade class of 20 kids, I piled a stack of books on each of our four library tables, making sure to include various fiction genres as well as nonfiction and biography titles, all covering a range of reading levels.

We began with a brief review of how to select a book: read the blurb on the back, the inside flap, and several of the pages. For the book tasting event, students selected a book, recorded its title and call number, took brief notes, and rated each book anywhere from 1 to 5 stars on a form I created.

Students were allowed three minutes per book. I used a timer, projected on a large screen, to alert students to move on to another book. The large assortment of book choices as well as the time limit really helped student motivation. I was impressed that my typically chatty 3rd grade students fell silent whenever the clock started it’s 3-minute countdown.

In all, each student “tasted” 10 books. I loved seeing them excited about their 5-star “finds”. When a student discovered one of the I Survived series books, he told me that he planned on reading all of them. In fact, every student found at least one book to check out, but most students found several so that I decided to ignore the usual checkout limit of three books. What a perfect way to start our winter break!

Please watch Eliana and May explaining the book tasting process.

Retelling “The Paper Bag Princess”

Posted on December 13, 2013 by Karin Schreier Hallett

My first grade students orally retold The Paper Bag Princess by Robert N. Munsch (1980). It’s a fun, classic fairy tale with a twist–featuring a princess who rescues a rather arrogant prince. Retelling is such a great exercise to reinforce understanding of sequence. But it’s not just about organizing and describing events, it’s also about vocabulary and language skills.

I really enjoyed this project. I believe allowing the kids to use the retelling rope, holding each “disc” as they were organizing their thoughts, really helped them. Some of the retellings were more fluid than others, some more expressive than others. I loved seeing my students’ personalities on display!

We began by reading and discussing the book. We then spent a considerable amount of time identifying the various story elements (setting, characters, problem/solution, beginning, middle, and end) before completing a graphic organizer.

For some fun and also to introduce the idea that stories should be read and told with expression, we listened to the story read by the author himself on Tumblebooks. If you have access to the database, I encourage you to listen to Munsch’s very expressive and highly engaging reading.

To aid student retelling, I created retelling ropes to serve as visual cues. Feel free to use the template below to create your own. Or, if you have some extra funds, you could also purchase retelling ropes.

Using a rope, I modeled retelling the story for the students. Then the kids practiced in groups of three (pairing the more advanced kids with the lower kids really helped) before I recorded each student.

The Book Whisperer: A Visual Review

Posted on December 8, 2013 by Karin Schreier Hallett

I just finished reading Donalyn Miller’s book The Book Whisperer: Awakening the Inner Reader in Every Child (Jossey-Bass, 2009)–and am enthralled. As a librarian, a major part of my job is to put the “right book” in kids’ hands in order to instill and foster a love of reading. That is, a book that will appeal to them–as individuals. To connect kids with the books that they will love, uniquely. And we all know, of course, that reading is fundamental. But despite its simplicity and common sense, Miller’s approach to “awakening the inner reader in every child” seems revolutionary: provide every child with a good book and time to read it, because “everybody is a reader”. Miller’s text is required reading for all language arts teachers and school librarians alike.

Tools for Awakening Readers

Daily Reading: The “cornerstone” of every classroom, a daily habit. In Miller’s classroom, students spend about one third (30 minutes) of their language arts block reading each day.

Student Surveys: During the first week of school, students complete two surveys, the “Reading Interest-A-Lyzer” created by Sally Reis and based on a form by Joseph S. Renzulli, about student reading habits and student visions of a perfect language arts class. The other is a general interest survey about book, movie and television preferences, hobbies, collections, preferred activities, and more. The surveys serve to assist Miller in making personal reading recommendations.

Reader’s Notebooks: Students maintain a reader’s notebook as a record of their reading. The notebooks serve as a tool for student-teacher conferences and for book recommendations. Aside from listing books read and to-read, it also serves as a space for reading responses.

Teacher Modeling: In order to instill a love of reading, teachers must be readers as well. “If we want our students to read and enjoy it for the rest of their lives, then we must show them what a reading life looks like” (110). And so during the designated class reading time, Miller also reads rather than busying herself with administrative or other tasks. Like the students, she also keeps a reader’s notebook.

Classroom Libraries: Miller believes in the importance of surrounding students with books. Her classroom is a library with shelves lining each wall. Rather than investing in classroom decorations, she invests in books.

Year-End Evaluation: Students complete an end-of-year survey to document their growth as readers. It shows not only how many books and the different genres students read, but also which factors contributed to their reading interests and motivation. Moreover, “through this survey, students celebrate their reading accomplishments, express their opinions to me one more time about the structure of our class, and set future reading goals” (156).