Books We've Shared!

“Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.” 

-Lemony Snicket

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I LOVE to read aloud to my students! I really make an effort to do it every day, even though the days are mega-packed as it is. 

When we share a story, I like to use it as an opportunity to understand genre. I have genre posters (from "Really Good Stuff" - here's the link) that I have posted on the cupboards in the back of my room. When we finish a story, whether it's a regular read-aloud or a story we have all shared from our reading textbook, I like to post a photo of the story next to the genre poster it belongs to. I used to just write the title and the author with overhead pen (you know I have TONS of those left since we got our document cameras!) but I think it is more helpful to kids to have the visual. You can either print an image of the cover off of your computer, or literally just make a black-and-white copy using the regular old copy machine.

I prefer to discuss with the students the genre after we finish the book, and some years I am better at that than others. If we don't get a chance to discuss it, I will still post it on the cupboard. Check out the examples below!

We started the year by reading No Talking by Andrew Clements. It was pretty cute and entertaining.

My new favorite picture book author is Oliver Jeffers. You can see three of his books in the photo above. If you haven't checked them out, I would highly suggest it! His books are just so charming.

I also heard of an idea a few years ago about letting the kids vote for some of their favorite stories from the year to reread as school begins to wind down for the year (picture books, of course!). I might try it!

Do you have a way of keeping track and/or celebrating of what books you read together as a class? How do you teach genre?

:) Jenny