Ten months with my vibrant, enthusiastic, driven sixth graders seem to fly through time quicker than I could have imagined. I am so proud of how far my students have come and can only hope for the same growth as they venture into 7th grade and beyond.
As a previous traveling teacher, this was my first year with my very own classroom. Dreams of bulletin boards, decorative book shelves, and displays finally came to life! After multiple trips to Hobby Lobby, Michaels, Lakeshore Learning and more, I realized I couldn't possibly perfect my teaching home in a single year. During the summer and throughout use of this blog, I hope to share ideas and inspiration about what I hope to implement in my classroom in the fall. Summer has only begun, and of course planning is what we teachers do best! Happy summer everyone!
Instill a Love of Reading
I created a shelf in my classroom to display books we love. In the beginning of the year, it begins as books Mrs. Horrigan loves, and soon evolves into a place where my students' favorite books are put on display for their classmates to see. Each week, I host 'Book Chats' about books proven to be popular, and I allow an open forum for students to contribute if they have read the book. It creates anticipation and excitement about reading- what more could an English teacher want!? The titles literally fly off the shelves each week. I hope to add a second shelf next year in order to display more great reads for my students.
How To:
1. Purchase a
gutter from any home improvement store.
2. Cut the gutter to your desired length- mine is approximately 3 feet long to hold 5 books at a time.
3. Use the remaining length to create more shelves if desired.
Further Reading:
This leads me to wonder: Where does a love of reading begin for my students? An interesting article in the
New York Times poses that very question.
Diana,
ReplyDeleteYour blog is as upbeat as you are. The sixth graders in your care are quite lucky. I love the gutter idea for book display. Sadly, at my school, the walls are not really permanent. Many are actually made of metal. I wonder if I could do the same sort of thing with very strong magnets. I feel the plan taking shape as I write this.
I look forward to more ideas and photos.
Karen
Karen, you could use the book holders that are V-shaped to display books (the holders that Dr. Layne used in class to display his books). Those could go on a table in your room and would have the same affect. I was thinking about using those on top of my bookshelves next year :)
DeleteI love the gutter idea Diana. The gutter would be great above my library book shelf in my classroom. Another idea for a "Books We Love" area is giving the students a picture of an open book. I have them write the title and author of the book they love, a reason why the book is great, and a star rating (4 out of 5 stars). Then, I let their creativity flow with colors and pictures.
ReplyDeleteHi Kim! I love that idea! I have a magnetic chalkboard near my bookshelves and could do something like that next year to display the student's ideas. Thanks for the inspiration!
DeleteHi Diana!
ReplyDeleteJust as Karen mentioned above, your students are incredibly lucky to have you as their teacher! I've seen the 'books we love' idea on pinterest and I'm happy to see you are fully implementing it in your classroom; I'm already thinking how I can use this idea in my kindergarten room come August. I think this is a great idea for many reasons-- it shows you are willing to invest time to talk about reasons WHY a book is great, it models to students the importance of reading and it demonstrates to your students that you are not just a teacher, but that you yourself are a reader too!
I do have one question though, do you let students take the books home from the shelf or do the books stay in the classroom? Looking forward to reading more about what happens in the world of 6th grade!
Hi Kelly! Thank you for your comments :) Since I have 5 sections throughout the day, I leave the books on the shelf the day I am doing the book talks so all 5 of my classes can hear about the books. The next day, students check them out from my library, and I put new titles on the shelf for the next week. Students keep track of the books they want to check out in their portfolios, and if there are really popular books I write down student's names and do a drawing out of a hat to keep it fair. Then they rotate that book between themselves. It actually forces students to read a little faster so the book can be checked out again- helping my students with reading stamina :)
DeleteIn Kindergarten, you could do the book check out on the spot which your kids would enjoy!