I know the title of this “The Best…” list is quite grammatically correct, but I just couldn’t figure out a better headline that pretty much says it all about this post.
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I’ve divided this list into four categories. The first one is related to studies showing the importance of books in the home. The second relates to to helping students select books they want to read. Next, I list posts sharing examples of what students can do while reading them (and does not include book reports!). And the last category includes web applications that make it easy for students to share about the books they have read.
You might also be interested in The Best Resources On The Study Finding That Reading Books Makes You Live Longer.
Here are my choices for My Best Posts On Books: Why They’re Important & How To Help Students Select, Read, Write & Discuss Them:
THE IMPORTANCE OF BOOKS:
A Book in Every Home, and Then Some is a useful article in the New York Times about efforts to get books to low-income families. It contains links to some useful studies.
Books in the Home Are Strongly Linked to Academic Achievement is from Pacific Standard.
Why is reading good for me? is from the BBC.
Here’s a new and good video from Newsy (an article accompanies it):
Teenagers’ book choices ‘go for easier reads’ is a BBC story on a recent study.
— Teacher2Teacher (@teacher2teacher) April 6, 2018
READING, WRITING & TALKING ABOUT BOOKS:
A3: I asked students, “What topics are trending in their lives?” as a way to give choice and raise voice. Then paired their trending topics with YA Lit. They had awesome ideas! #g2great pic.twitter.com/NF3hLPpsVM
— Andy Schoenborn (@aschoenborn) February 9, 2018
Let’s Talk About Reading Logs Again is by Pernille Ripp.
Can Reading Logs Ruin Reading for Kids? is from The Atlantic and discusses important recent research.
“Bloom’s Taxonomy According to Pirates of the Caribbean” is a fun video, and in the post I describe how I plan to use it as a model for a student assignment in their book discussion groups.
(Almost) Paperless Literature Circles appeared in Edutopia.
Considering the Future of Reading: Lessons, Links and Thought Experiments is from The New York Times Learning Network, as is Beyond the Book Report: Ways to Respond to Literature Using New York Times Models. They are obviously not my posts, but I think the best place to “curate” them is here.
Fun Assessment for Silent Sustained Reading is by Catlin Tucker.
TEN WAYS TO DITCH THAT READING LOG is from Middle School Minds.
6 Alternatives to Reading Logs is by Shaelynn Farnsworth.
— Tricia Ebarvia (@triciaebarvia) August 19, 2017
My students are in book clubs and they are reading selections all tied to social justice. They will finish this week and I am going to have them write to this prompt (in the picture). pic.twitter.com/1CghxuU4Ql
— Kelly Gallagher (@KellyGToGo) October 13, 2018
How to talk with a student about a book you haven’t read is the topic of this video and teacher hand-out.
How do you confer when you haven’t read the book? Read (and annotate) the #bandsoftextcomplexity instead. Ask questions that coach your reader into a higher level retell. #toolkitatmyfingertips #tcrwp pic.twitter.com/KZPWZcctFR
— Hareem Atif Khan (@hareematifkhan) October 30, 2018
I book-talked Michael Pollan’s in Defense of Food today. Love how he summarizes his entire book in the first seven words: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” My 7-word teaching version: “More reading. More writing. Choice. No worksheets.” Yours?
— Kelly Gallagher (@KellyGToGo) November 7, 2018
USING TECHNOLOGY TO WRITE & READ ABOUT BOOKS:
Using Technology to Inspire Independent Readers is from Edutopia. It joins other resources related to students creating book trailers here.
#BookSnaps – How-To-Videos and Examples is by Tara Martin.
#BookSnaps and Book Creator is from Book Creator.
This isn’t my post, but it relates to book trailers: Common Core, Book Trailers, and Three Good Tools for Creating Them is a helpful post from Richard Byrne that shares several web tools.
— A.Rose (@betweenmargins) July 11, 2017
— Dana and Sonja (@LitLearnAct) December 18, 2015
English 101 has a nice guide to having students create online book trailers.
WRITING BOOK REVIEWS FOR AUTHENTIC AUDIENCES
Book reviews are great writing opportunities. ELL teacher Jennifer Duartehad some challenges having her students write ones for Amazon (not least of which being you have to buy something before they let you publish a review).Shelfari, though, seems like a very reasonable alternative. Students can create their own virtual bookshelf and write reviews of them.
Library Thing is similar to Shelfari, and is another good place for writing book reviews.
Good Reads is another.
Suggestions are welcome…
For Those Who Want to Lead, Read is from The Harvard Business Review.
Books: A Living History is from Brain Pickings.
The Power of Purposeful Reading is by Cris Tovani.
Leah Price on the History of Reading is from The Browser.
Here’s a TED-Ed lesson and video (even though it’s not anywhere as interesting as it could have been):
15 Reasons Why You Should Read was created by Lauren Zucker’s students.
Guided Reading: How to Make Kids Hate (or Love) to Read is by Justin Minkel.
Four Steps to a Magnificent Classroom Library is by Justin Minkel.
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