Saturday, October 10, 2015

Spark Student Motivation: Featured Books

Do you have some special books in your class that you'd love your students to read? Have your purchased some new books that you want snatched off the shelves?
FEATURE THEM!


Yep, that simple! I am fortunate to have a HUGE library, but I wanted a new way to feature special books each week/month. So I cleared off the top of my book shelves, purchased some book displays, and made some signs...and then I had "FEATURED BOOKS"!


 
 
My students can "shop" around for any books in my classroom, but this display attracts them right away! I've noticed since I added this to my classroom this year, it's the first place they look when searching for a new read.
 
 
I love having the books facing forward, but I have so many books I can only feature a few. ( I know, it's not a bad problem to have!) I just know kids gravitate towards book covers, not book spines, which is why I decided to do this in the first place.
 
 
These are books that are just released or are new to our classroom. Just the word "new" makes anything sound better!

It's so exciting to see books flying off the display and my students enjoying these books! I don't mind having to refill my display AT ALL! :)


 

 Feature a few special books that have been forgotten on a shelf or favorites of yours to attract attention. These are displayed on plate/frame holders.


If only a few are featured, students think they're "special" and want to take them of the display!

 


Now, these books are different...I want to attract their attention and pique their curiosity, but they are NOT ALLOWED to read these books! (Which drives them CRAZY!) Why can't they read these books? These are the books that I will be reading to them! These are special mentor texts or read alouds I plan to share with my students sometime "soon".


Just putting them up on my display makes them want to take the book, especially since they know they can't read it! Aren't I mean??!! Look at the face below-she wants to read that "Coming Soon" book so badly, but I have to be firm and say NO! It just makes them appreciate the book so much more when I do share it. There's a little cheer and squeal when I walk over to my display to take a book off of my coming soon shelf to read to them!


Want to pique your students' curiosity? Do you need some display tent cards to get started?
Click here to download.
Enjoy your readers and your books! :)
 
I hope you had a wonderful week! Please link up any lessons, ideas, tips, tricks, incentives, ANYTHING you do get your students motivated or excited!
Don't forget to grab my button and link back to this post!
Check out all the wonderful ideas from my friends who link up and don't forget to leave some love by commenting....we LOVE comments!
***Please include the topic in the link up with your blog name.

10 comments:

  1. I was getting so excited reading your blogpost and kept thinking, "What are those display racks and where did she get them?" I love the black and white chevron ones, so I'm guessing you added some of your own artistry to them. Can I ask where you got those? I would love to have some of those, because I agree that kids will go to those books first!
    BTW, Fish in a Tree has some of the most colorful descriptive language I've seen in a while. And just finished Long Walk to Water last night. Wow! That's a great book to teach your kids about things we take for granted in our country.
    Marion

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Marion!
      I just started Fish in a Tree this week with my kids and we are all hooked! I purchased Long Walk to Water​ right before school started so I haven't had to read it myself yet. Thanks for the recommendation. :)
      I bought the chevron book holders at Hobby Lobby last summer on clearance. I think they're really for picture frames, but I knew I'd love them to display books! I think they always carry seasonal picture holders like that though, good excuse to go to Hobby Lobby! :)

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  2. I love the idea of displaying books! I used to just put up books on the "chalk" tray (back in the Stone Ages when I began teaching) that were paired texts for whatever we were reading about (although we didn't call them paired texts back then either). I still do that today!

    -Lisa
    Mrs. Spangler in the Middle

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  3. My students LOVE that I have books on display too, although your signs are WAY more cute. ;) A Long Walk to Water is a beautiful inspiring story. You will LOVE it. I'm thinking Fish in A Tree may be my next read aloud.
    Have a great day!
    Michele
    Coffee Cups and Lesson Plans

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  4. I'm headed to Hobby Lobby! Those are too cute! Love your display of good books to read!

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  5. If you're looking for an inexpensive display for your classroom, I found wonderful chrome easels in the frame department at Wal-mart. They're lightweight, stackable, and just 99 cents a piece...so not a big investment of time or money. You'll find them next to the plastic magnetic frames. I'm always switching out the featured books--and sometimes simply put a little sticky note teaser on the front to lure readers to check out a particular page in the book.

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    Replies
    1. By the way, we've been reading Fish in a Tree (love) and tracking characters. Each table in my classroom has someone tracking a different character's thoughts, words, and actions. All the Allys, Keishas, Alberts, etc. get together weekly to compare notes. They'll create a group character poster at the end of the book. A Long Walk to Water is amazing...though a completely different reading experience (lions and crocs prey on some of the minor characters). We're reading that again this year...after Fish in a Tree. BTW, FIAT is a wonderful way to begin a new school year!

      So glad I discovered your blog. :)

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  6. These books courses really good because all of them new edition thanks for share it sentence fragment checker free .

    ReplyDelete
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