Exposing Students to New Books of Interest: 4 Things I Do Throughout the Year

Over the years I've built up my classroom library from just two bookshelves to over 1,600 books. A bigger classroom library means more books for students to choose from, but it can also make it difficult for students to select a book they are interested in.⁠ 

At the start of the school year, I spend a considerable amount of time making sure students understand the different genres that I use to organize my classroom library and where to find those genres (and additional formats like graphic novels, verse novels, manga, and short story collections). But having students understand which genres they are interested in is just the beginning of helping them to find books they want to read.

To expose students to books in our classroom library and help them build a TBR (to be read) list throughout the year, here's four things I do routinely.

The 5 Focus Areas for my March Madness Poetry Tournament

Hosting a March Madness Poetry Tournament is one way I liven up what could otherwise be a blah month. The weather is still crummy and Spring Break seems far off.⁠

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But even more importantly, this intense focus on poetry builds my students' comfort levels with reading and understanding poetry while also providing an opportunity to review learning from earlier in the year.⁠

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As we progress through the tournament, here’s the terms and skills  I focus on. 

My 4 Criteria For Choosing Poems for My March Madness Poetry Tournament

The starting point for hosting a March Madness Poetry Tournament is picking out the poems. You can go with classic or contemporary, you can pair poems by the same poet or based on themes or topics, you can choose the poems or let students submit recommendations, you could even throw in song lyrics! There's no one right way to make your picks, but here is how I've decided on the poems I use.

4 Reasons To Host A March Madness Poetry Tournament In Your Classroom

I’ve hosted a March Madness poetry tournament for six years in my classroom now. It is something I look forward to every year and former students look back on with fondness when they stop in my classroom and see the bracket covering our bulletin board. Here's 4 reasons I keep doing it.

Writer's Workshop: Those Who Raise Us Poetry

"Those Who Raise Us" poetry has a narrative focus but also allows for deep reflection as students are growing older and beginning to make connections between love, sacrifice, boundaries, and ultimately gratitude to those who contributed to raising us. This writer’s workshop would be ideal around Thanksgiving, Mother’s Day or Father’s Day as a gift to those who raised us. Connecting with families in this way would be so special and appreciated. If you are trying writer's workshop for the first time, you'll want to read this overview post, but if you have done it before, read on.

Writer's Workshop: Can't Buy Me Happiness Narratives

The narrative genre is an excellent choice for working through a writing workshop. As adolescents, the meaning of love and trust is forming in an undeniable way. Our students are developing the meaning of mutual respect and authentic connection. Diving into the genre of “Can’t Buy Me Happiness” is a fulfilling way to write narratives, but also explore deep emotions and valuable lessons along the way proving that material items do not buy happiness. If you haven't run a writer's workshop before, you'll want to read this overview post, but if you already have experience with it, read on.

Writer's Workshop: Coming of Age Poetry

A successful writing workshop unit is writing coming of age poetry. Not only does this allow for authentic voices, but it is also highly motivating for students, and there are many powerful mentor texts to build thinking around coming of age writing. Middle and high school students are living this daily, and encouraging them to use their writing voice to share their successes and struggles is beyond powerful. If writer's workshop is new to you, you'll want to read this overview post, but if you are an old hat, read on.

Writer's Workshop for Middle & High School Students

I first learned about the writer's workshop model during a summer institute with my local chapter of The National Writing Project. We engaged in lessons from Linda Christensen's books Teaching for Joy and Justice: Re-Imagining the Language Arts Classroom and Reading, Writing, and Rising Up: Teaching About Social Justice and the Power of the Written Word, which I was able to transfer directly into my high school classroom the following school year.

I loved the use of relevant mentor texts to draw out students' own stories plus the emphasis on revision. In sharing their work with their peers, students received direct feedback but also learned from seeing and hearing each others' writing "moves." If you are interested in a more engageing writing process for your middle or high school students, this post is for you.

The Most Popular Books In My Middle School Classroom Library This Year

My classroom library is the heart of my classroom. My school doesn’t have a school library so the books in my classroom are it for my sixth grade students as far as immediately accessible books. We do independent reading daily in my classroom so I want there to be plenty of books for them to access.

Last year I started taking a closer look at the top checkouts in my classroom library through a report I exported from Booksource  (the library management system I use; it’s free!). While I always have a general sense of what is popular and what hasn’t left the shelf, I liked being able to look at the actual data to make decisions about what books to add or weed from my classroom library.

Read on for the top book checkouts by genre (plus graphic novels) from my classroom library this past school year.