Speed-dating on Valentine's Day...with BOOKS!
Have I told you that Mrs. G, the librarian at our school, rocks? I know I have, but let me tell you again; Mrs. G. ROCKS!!Thanks to the ideas I "harvested" from Pinterest, we had a brainac of an idea for the month of February: Today – we “Dated Books.”
She displayed high-interest books all around the tables and facilitated as our students spent 5 minutes “dating books” – checking out the covers, reading the backs, and spending 3 minutes of quiet time getting to know the books. Every student left with a book they liked, and several left with SEVERAL books!
She even made sure the kids had bookmarks! We found this link, and the kids loved the "pick-up" lines: http://snfontaholic.blogspot.com/2013/02/freebie-friday-valentine-bookmarks.html
Here is a few slides from her PowerPoint:
Here are slides from the PowerPoint she created for our experience:
It's funny -- as the students entered the library, they were already "checking out" the genres of books displayed on each table.
Kids have always been told to "NOT judge a book by its cover; however, here's a teachable moment: I told the kids, "Just like you selected your book by the appearance, when interviewing, future employers always judge you by how you're dressed, the way you stand -- by YOUR cover."
Only two students selected a book because of the topic -- welding.
As I "kid-watched," I noticed that some actually selected a few different genres. Most stayed to what they knew. At least the opportunity was there; our librarian made sure there was variety!
I had to chuckle; many found books they wanted to "marry" (their term) right away and tried to stay married to that book instead of checking out other books. It's a good thing they knew that they could select more than one book to take with them.
It's important to monitor so that students follow the rules. Don't be a passive instructor; approximation worked well for me. I also selected a book at the table where potential "rule-breakers" were and dated a few books myself.
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Here are some "Ticket-out-the Door" student-generated responses discussing the experience:
“It’s sometimes really hard to make good choices anymore. Even when you look at a book and think it’s the right choice, it may not always be the best book for you. I really liked the activity, but it’s hard to find books when the best book isn’t out there.”
I told her then to author her own! J
“I liked it because it gave me a wide variety of books. I didn’t have to commit to one because there were a lot of ‘fish in the sea’.”
I noticed that one of the students took pictures (with her camera phone) of future titles she’d like to check out from the library. Though it is against the rules, I reminded her to put her phone away as my inner biblio-phile clapped loudly for her!
“My book experience was amazing! It helped me understand how to find a book in just a few minutes; I took pictures of books I’d like to date in the future! Please – let’s do this again!”
“Thanks for the book mark! I got one for each book I checked out!”
“I had so much fun. I picked out books that I didn’t even think I would read! We definitely need to do this again. It was tough to stop reading after our 3 minutes; I found so much I liked! My Valentine’s Day will be spent in my room with the door closed and a candle lit while I read my book.”
“I did not want to ‘cheat’ on my book. My book is life; it means everything to me, but after reading little bits of book, I know what other types of books are out there.”
“I did not want to ‘cheat’ on my book. My book is life; it means everything to me, but after reading little bits of book, I know what other types of books are out there.”
One of our exit writings has been to make hash tags. This cracks me up.
“I finally found a book I liked!”
“I ‘met’ some really nice books that I plan to spend a lot of time with. I believe that I will enjoy that time spent, and I’m not inspired to READ! I love being in a school where it’s cool to read!
“I’d like to do this again; I want to spend more time ‘dating’ other books!”
“I’ve never done anything like this before and I wasn’t sure about it, but I actually DID find a book I liked! I didn’t have to feel stupid wandering around trying to find one because we were all doing that!”
"This is the car I'm going to have some day."
"This is the car I'm going to have some day."
“It’s hard to make good decisions to pick a good book – so I picked two!”
“I had fun ‘book dating.’ I felt like I could have taken six books instead of the three I selected. I guess I’ll have to return again to check out more!”
“It’s usually hard for me to pick a book that I like because I don’t like to read, but I did find one book I like today.”
This response cracked me up.
“I wish there would have been series books on the tables; I saw them on the fiction stacks, but I wasn’t sure if I could check them out.”
“I didn’t think I’d like a poetry book, but I was surprised that, when I asked you to read it to me – and you actually did, I liked it. I think I now know how to read poetry. Thanks for reading the poem to me.”
“I found a book I liked; I think a lot of others did, too!”
“I am not a fan of reading, but I did find an interesting book on the first round and ended up keeping it.”
“The book I chose is not usually something I would read, but I’m deciding to give it a chance because it captured my interest.”
“I found a book about a dog that is one of a kind – like me!”
(First published on Feb 13, 2015 from one of my earlier blog posts)
(First published on Feb 13, 2015 from one of my earlier blog posts)
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