Reset Time: Part Two

Recently, I spoke with a teacher about young people and their reading habits.  The teacher believed that young people don't like to read.  A common misperception, I quickly shared that based on my experience most young people don't enjoy reading because they don't have choice and access.  I shared some of my experiences with undiscovered readers and suggested he give Book Matching a try. He agreed and we set up a time for the students to receive the survey and selected days for the class visits to the library.

The class visits were a chance for me to meet the students and lead them through the surveys. During the visits, I shared the background of Book Matching and the connection to an upcoming assignment. Most students were interested to hear book suggestions would be made based on their interests. There were also a few students who were nonplussed and uninterested. I assured them that they would enjoy the process. The first set of surveys was completed. 

Due to a glitch, the second set of surveys was not completed. Based on the time necessary to review surveys and select three to four titles for each student, Mr. Giles and I revamped the focus of the class visit and morphed it into a thematic Book Tasting.

A first for me, I pulled a variety of nonfiction and fiction titles related to the theme and topic of resistance.  From graphic novels depicting the American Revolution to historical fiction set in WWII, numerous genres and formats were selected. Each place setting included three titles: a nonfiction title, a fiction title, and a graphic novel, comic, or manga. The three books were placed on the tables in the library as place settings. 

The first day of classes began with students discussing their ideas of what a book tasting might be. Some students mentioned "trying out new books" and others shared that they would have a chance to look at books to see what they liked. I then shared the purpose of the Book Tasting. Mr. Giles shared the why. Next, I discussed the process and modeled for the students ways to use a variety of pre-reading strategies to "taste" the books and the first round of Book Tasting began.

After two to three rounds, students were able to check out books that they had listed as their top picks. By the end of the day, 65 books had been checked out by the two classes.  I decided to revise the lesson one more time.

For the second day of lessons, students didn't receive a worksheet. Instead, students were asked to place their favorite books to the right, their least favorite books to the left, and any other book in the middle. After the first round, students were able to take their top picks with them as they "tasted" other titles. By the time the class had completed three to four rounds, many students had at least one book selected to check out. By the end of the day, we had 36 students who had checked out 41 books. 

Two things were observable, the students enjoyed the visit and were excited to get books. Second, nearly half of the students were visiting the library for the first time in nearly two years. *

The enjoyment was apparent the next day when two students stopped by the library to check out more books. 

Based on this experience, this reset of Book Tasting will be shared with more classroom teachers to connect curricular requirements and infuse the joy of reading. 

 

Stay tuned for more updates.

* See my previous blog, Reset Time: Part One, for more details.