I read somewhere (Twitter) “that reading is a social act” and “we aren’t done with a book until we pass it on.”
As an avid reader, I truly believe these statements to be true. I am a huge book lover. I worked for the Regina Public Library during university. I started my teaching career as a teacher librarian. After being in the classroom for ten years, I would love to return to a library position.
During university I kept a book journal and recorded all of the books that I wanted to read. I would then highlight the title once I had finished reading them. Now some genius has developed the goodreads.com website. I don’t use the website but I am obsessed with my Goodreads app on my phone. I have some family members and friends on Goodreads and I can see what they are reading and what they want to read. I can read their reviews and their ratings. I can search books by authors and titles. Goodreads sends me book selections based on the books I have read. When I am out and I come across a book I want to read I just scan the barcode and it will bring the book up and I can store it in on my “to-read”shelf. I have even had an author send me a message because I added his book to my “to read” shelf.
Looking at the classroom, kids love to share things that they have read. Funny things, mysterious things, factual information. We must encourage our kids to share, talk and listen about others book choices so that they will develop a love a reading. If they don’t love reading then chances are they haven’t found the right book.
A classmate from EC&I 831 mentioned her students using Aurasma to create book reviews for the library at her school. Students recorded a review and then she placed a sticker on the book showing a review had been done. I looked at this program and it seems like a great idea. Here is a a video of someone doing a quick review.
How do you have your students share books with other students?
Do you have kids rate the books in your classroom and if so, how?
Shannon Sanchuck 
Hi Shannon,
As a child I used to play library all the time. I would set up my mom’s ironing board and have my younger sister’s come up to my “counter” and checkout their books, charge them for over-dues and recommend books they might like. I was a little bit of a book nerd and still am!
I am going to share this Aurasma app with our ICEs (AKA teacher librarians). When I was an ICE, we had a student book club that met at lunch and created posters or video clips about their favorite books in the library. We now have a new library system where all students can create book reviews or rate their reads on our library site!
Hi Shannon, thanks for the video – it’s always great to see something in action! I Am going to download the good read apps right now!!
As for in my grade 7/8 classroom, I periodically do 30 second commercial talks on books we’re reading. Students have a page in their reader response journal dedicated to things they want to read.
I really like the idea of this aurasma app – it’s a great idea to put a sticker on the book to let students know there’s a review!
Thanks for the Good Reads App tip! I am very excited about this, being a grade 8 ELA teacher. I am always expanding my classroom library, however there is no way I could possibly read all the books myself. In the past I have simply asked my students to write me short summaries with recommendations after they have finished a book from the classroom library. I keep these on file and I read them so that I can then pass on the recommendations. I also have students write reader responses in their journals, but these are often more specific to aspects of the book they’re reading. Your post really got me thinking about how I could better the practices in my classroom for sharing book reviews. I am definitely going to put this on my to-do list.
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