Some of your best ideas come when you’re on vacation.
—Gautam Singhania
Holiday Reading
It’s a holiday weekend here in the United States, which means it is a great time to kick back with a book. I’d like to invite you to head over to our Go-To Book Guide page. This is a new offering here on Choice Literacy that’s been in the works for nearly a year.
As you know, fantastic new books are constantly being released. We read them and then melt with the possibilities to use them in our classrooms. They serve as solid mentor texts for writers, as well as open windows and doors to see the world in beautiful ways. They invite readers to think in new ways, and offer opportunities for deeper conversations.
The trouble is time. Although we fall in love with a book, sometimes it is difficult to figure out how to put it in play in our classrooms. We’re navigating so much—new mandates for reading instruction, pressure to assimilate to a curriculum, student behaviors that take our attention away from instruction—that it can be a challenge to share a new book with our students.
We understand. That’s why our contributors have been working to create Go-To Book Guides that take away the pressure of figuring out how to share a new book with students. A Go-To Book Guide highlights key features and themes from books to give you a springboard into meaningful conversations with your students.
Just to be clear, let’s talk about what a Go-To Book Guide is not.
- A book guide is not a packet of activities designed for cute and identical responses to a book.
- It is not created by people outside of the classroom to keep students inside of a classroom busy and silent.
- It does not contained canned prompts with single correct answers.
This week, head over to our Go-To Book Guide page. Watch the videos and then pick one to try out with your students. These are free to our members, so make sure you’re logged in to access the entire guide! If you’re not a member, maybe now is the time to fix that…or you can purchase a guide as a stand-alone. Enjoy!
Shine on,
Ruth Ayres
Editor in Chief
