Reading Strategy: Book Pass

The Book Pass is a neat way to get students to look through many different kinds of texts in a short amount of time. You would use this strategy as an  introduction to a unit to build background knowledge, to choose a new reading book, or select research texts for a project.You want to choose books from many different genres, including poetry, research texts, novels, etc. You want these texts to be based on a certain theme.

What you do:
1. You can do this with either the whole class or small groups depending on the topic.
2. Once you have decided the grouping, you want to pass out the Book Pass sheet, and then explain to the students that they should write the authors name in the author box, the title of the text in the title box and either comments, questions or something they have learned through the book, in the comment box.
3. Give students 2-4 minutes to "sample" the book. Once the time is up, say "Book Pass" and have students fill in the boxes and pass the book to their partner.
4. When everyone has gone through the books, you can bring the class together and discuss some of the things they have learned as well as any comments or questions they have.

Reading Circles

In my classroom that I am observing in, they are currently working on their final project for their reading circles. The way my teacher uses reading circles is by allowing the students to choose their group members as well as the book they would like to read. Students were able to choose any book they would like as well as any grade level, as long as the teacher approved.

The students were encouraged to read 30 pages a week in order to finish their books in 5 weeks. Students who chose larger books were expected to read more.

Today the students were working on their presentations on the book. They had to include a pyramid describing 3 rising actions, the climax, and 2 falling actions/resolution, as well as a summary, the title, and author.  Students will also give an oral presentation of their books, describing their poster, the summary of the book and their opinion.

I think this is a great way to encourage students to read. The ability to chose the book you want to read greatly impacts your whole view on class reading. And because students present on the books, other students can get ideas for the next book they would like to read. Reading various books also helps students learn what kind of genre they are interested in.

Twitter in the Classroom

I think, if used right, Twitter could be a great tool to be used in the classroom. My concentrations are language arts and social studies, and I would really love to use Twitter in my reading class. While students read at home, they will be able to post to Twitter their thoughts, feelings, and question with the hashtag that we have decided on. This way students can get what they are thinking out of their heads and share it with the class in a fun, new way. Students can then retweet, favorite or reply to other students thoughts all from the comfort of their own home. This way students are having a discussion on the book and we can then come together as a class and talk about the discussion we had.

On Twitter you are able to post links, pictures or just write your thoughts, all which could be used in a classroom setting.

There are many ways Twitter could be incorporated into the classroom, sometimes you may just have to be creative with it.

The most important thing about Twitter in the classroom is that it would be fun for the students. I think they would thoroughly enjoy the experience and learn from it, which is my ultimate goal; to make learning fun.

My class Twitter