Thank you Bobbi Claytor, a literacy coach from North Elementary in Evanston, Wyoming for sharing this wonderful idea for teaching children how to select books!
BOOK CHOICE BINGO
1. Begin by talking with students about how readers select books. Create a chart of ideas that may include the following:
Strategies for Choosing Good Fit Books
- Choose a book in a series you love
- Choose a book by an author you know and like
- Ask a friend to recommend a title
- Ask a friend to recommend an author
- Ask a friend to recommend a series
- Read the back of a book
- Look inside and make sure the words aren’t too hard
- Try a new genre
- Read a genre you already know you like
- Reread a favorite book
- Read a book we read out loud as a class
- Ask the teacher for a recommendation
- View a book trailer online
- Choose a book on a topic that you’re interested in
- Preview the title and the cover
- Check the length: Ask is it too short or too long?
- Check the font: is it too big or too small?
2. Provide students with a blank 5x5 grid and have them write in their favorite strategies for choosing good fit books. Of course strategies can be used more than once! Put each of the strategies in a bag and one-by-one, pull strategies out of the bag. As strategies are called, students mark the strategy off their grid. Five in a row equals BINGO!
3. Have the winner share which strategy (s)he will use when selecting next book. For an added incentive, allow students to use a strategy to choose a free book from those you received for free with your points from Scholastic!
