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I really liked reading this chapter about sharing books. I know for myself, my friends and I share books ALL THE TIME! That's how I've known about many of the books I've read-recommendations from friends. But I never thought about my students sharing book recommendations. (total duh moment for me!) I do teach third grade, so to think about my students "discussing" books amongst themselves, kinda hard to grasp. BUT...reading about Donalyn Miller's Book commercials, I can totally visualize this happening now! Starting in first grade, teachers always assign book reports. Well if those aren't book commercials, then I don't know what is! So now, rather than assign some goofy diorama (which, by the way, I never assign) I am definitely going to start having my kids do commercials! I love the concept of not having to take tons of time away from those "precious instructional minutes". Rather, right before recess; right before we go home...boom. Students sharing books with other students. I LOVE THIS!!
Last year, I had a student who was NOT a great reader. We do AR in our school, and he was so behind. His mother asked me if I would let him take the tests after school, and I said "of course!". He didn't like feeling pressured to get off the computer. He was a very slow reader. Anyway, he loved nonfiction, and he started reading those "Something VS Something" books-like T-Rex vs. Godzilla (or something) and he ate those books up! Then I started seeing other kids reading them. And he brought a few from home, and he was sharing his books with the other kids! And then a bunch of kids were talking about those books-even the girls! (the books seem to be geared towards the boys) It was so great! I was so happy for this little guy! And so, after reading this chapter, I could just see last year being so much better, if I had thought about sharing books. My goal is to make my students super wild readers!
One other thing I really liked that Miller did was her Reading Graffiti. I love the idea of the kids writing meaningful sentences from books they read. I think it will take a little bit of time for my 3rd graders to grasp the idea, so they aren't writing a bunch of ridiculous sentences on the paper, but once they get the hang of it, I think it will be fun and inspiring for the others to want to read the books.
So, how do you have your students share books? Link up and let us know!
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