It's always wonderful to get sixth grade reading classes into the library for book checkout. The sixth grade teachers are open to exploring new ways to get books in the hands of our students, and this has led to some creative book promotion lessons. Last year, I explored the idea of a "book drive thru" type lesson with Mrs. Whalen, a sixth grade ELA teacher. We had previously conducted large-scale genre tastings with her classes and were looking for a way to slightly pare down that activity. The idea of a "book drive thru" was to give the students just a taste of many books to see what they would be interested in reading.
The lesson idea stayed on the shelf for awhile until Mrs. Reid decided she would like to bring in her reading class for the activity. The books for the activity (approximately 50 titles) were scattered around the library. Each book was accompanied by a laminated quote from the book and a response sheet. Quotes from each book were located by using Goodreads and the quotes were made more colorful by using an online quote generator.
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| Each station contained a book, quote, and response sheet. |
Students received a sheet where they could record the titles of books they encountered. There were spaces provided so they could indicate if they definitely wanted to read the book, maybe wanted to read the book, or didn't want to read the book. Students were also asked to leave a short response to the book's quote--it could be a word, phrase, or picture.
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| Students kept track of the books they were interested in reading. |
Once students had the instructions, they were free to move around the library and visit with books that looked appealing to them. Students could work independently and at their own pace on the activity.
Students left plenty of great feedback on the response sheets! It was really interesting to see how they interacted with the books' quotes through words and pictures.
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| Books for students to peruse were scattered all throughout the library. |
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| Students visited books that looked interesting to them. |
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| Each station had a book, quote, and response sheet. |
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| Students used words and pictures to respond to a book's quote. |
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| It was interesting to see students' feedback on each quote! |
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| It was especially interesting to see how students used illustrations to create their feedback. |
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| Students found new books of interest through this activity. |
Mrs. Reid's class spent about 25 minutes visiting with the books. I circulated through the room and talked to students about the titles from the activity that I had previously read and enjoyed. Students were also eager to share book recommendations with their peers.
Hatchet was a book loved by many of the students. One student had even left a detailed recommendation on the feedback sheet!
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| Students utilized the feedback sheet to recommend books to their classmates. |
At the end of the activity, students were invited to check out a book (either from the activity or from the library itself). Most students had a book in mind right away! They were asked to keep their sheet from this activity as it might give them ideas for books they would be interested in reading next.
All in all, this activity successfully introduced students to new books of interest. They enjoyed seeing a variety of titles, working at their own pace, and moving around the library. For next time, I would change the feedback sheet to instruct students to leave recommendations for books they have already read. I'd also encourage students to work in the vicinity of others--there was great discussion going on as students talked about books they loved!
