I know the title of this “The Best…” list is quite grammatically correct, but I just couldn’t figure out a better headline that pretty much says it all about this post.
You might also be interested in The Best Sites To Teach ELL’s About Libraries , The Best Resources Documenting The Effectiveness of Free Voluntary Reading, and The Best Resources On “Becoming What We Read.”
I’ve divided this list into four categories. The first one is related to studies showing the importance of books in the home. The second relates to to helping students select books they want to read. Next, I list posts sharing examples of what students can do while reading them (and does not include book reports!). And the last category includes web applications that make it easy for students to share about the books they have read.
Here are my choices for My Best Posts On Books: Why They’re Important & How To Help Students Select, Read, Write & Discuss Them:
THE IMPORTANCE OF BOOKS:
“Home Libraries Provide Huge Educational Advantage”
More On The Importance Of Home Libraries
Very Accessible Report On The Importance Of Home Libraries
“Free books block ’summer slide’ in low-income students”
Update On Summer Reading Study
“Summer Must-Read for Kids? Any Book”
Study: Reading Books Is Only Out-Of-School Activity That Helps Students Get Better Job Later
A Book in Every Home, and Then Some is a useful article in the New York Times about efforts to get books to low-income families. It contains links to some useful studies.
Image: “Reading Helps You See Further”
CHOOSING BOOKS:
“Myths of Independent Reading”
How I Organize My Classroom Library
Concerns About Book “Leveling”
“When Reading Becomes Work: How Textbooks Ruin Reading”
Excellent Info On The Importance Of Reading For Pleasure
New Ongoing Project: Video Interviews With My Students’ Favorite Authors
Teenagers’ book choices ‘go for easier reads’ is a BBC story on a recent study.
READING, WRITING & TALKING ABOUT BOOKS:
Getting Students To Talk About What They’re Reading &”Book Talks”
What A Great Way To Write A Book Review!
Students Annotating Text — Part Two
“Read A Children’s Book” Form For Students
Do You Require “Reading Logs” For Homework?
Reading Logs — Part Two (or “How Students Can Grow Their Brains”)
Two Ways I’m Using Our School Library
“Book Discussion Group Guidelines”
“Low-Income Students Suffer Greater Summer-Learning Losses”
“Bloom’s Taxonomy According to Pirates of the Caribbean” is a fun video, and in the post I describe how I plan to use it as a model for a student assignment in their book discussion groups.
“Myths of Independent Reading”
Talking To Students About Their Reading (& Their Data)
What Should Teachers Be Doing During Student “Free Voluntary Reading” Time?
Summarizing Books In One Picture
Considering the Future of Reading: Lessons, Links and Thought Experiments is from The New York Times Learning Network, as is Beyond the Book Report: Ways to Respond to Literature Using New York Times Models. They are obviously not my posts, but I think the best place to “curate” them is here.
USING TECHNOLOGY TO WRITE & READ ABOUT BOOKS:
Book Box Makes It Simple For Students To Display “Their” Books
Google Books Adds Great Feature For Students
Students Making Video “Book Trailers”
Making Book Trailers With Fotobabble
“Book Club It” Lets You Easily Create Online Book Discussion Groups
WRITING BOOK REVIEWS FOR AUTHENTIC AUDIENCES
Book reviews are great writing opportunities. ELL teacherJennifer Duartehad some challenges having her students write ones for Amazon (not least of which being you have to buy something before they let you publish a review).Shelfari, though, seems like a very reasonable alternative. Students can create their own virtual bookshelf and write reviews of them.
Library Thingis similar to Shelfari, and is another good place for writing book reviews.
Good Reads is another.
Gangaroo lets your search for pretty much any product on Amazon and other sites, click on it, write a review of it, and then the image, your description and your review will show up on a public list. You can make separate lists of books, DVD’s, music CD’s, etc. You can post the url address to your list and its publicly viewable, but only registered users can leave comments
Suggestions are welcome…
The Best Places Where Students Can Post Book Reviews For Authentic Audiences
BONUS RESOURCES:
For Those Who Want to Lead, Read is from The Harvard Business Review.
Books: A Living History is from Brain Pickings.
The Power of Purposeful Reading is by Cris Tovani.
Leah Price on the History of Reading is from The Browser.
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You might also want to explore the 450 other “The Best…” lists I’ve compiled.
June 3, 2010 at 10:24 am
Thanks for this post … a very helpful collection of articles and resources. As a small contribution: I’ve long been a fan of LibraryThing, but have recently discovered GoodReads. I like LibraryThing for tracking my actual book collection, but I find GoodReads to be more social and to do a better job of encouraging users to share and connect through their reading.
Thanks again. Cheers!
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July 21, 2011 at 7:38 am
Larry,
I am searching for a site like Shelfari that can be used with children under 13. I was excited to see your suggestions of Library Thing and Book Army, but both of them have books listed that do not seem appropriate for the under 13 group. I have also checked out GoodReads. Are any of these sites COPA compliant and are okay for children under 13? Please advise! Thank you!
July 21, 2011 at 8:20 am
Lisa,
On one of the posts in that list, I talk about using Google Books in a similar way. You might want to check that out. I wonder if Scholastic has anything?
Larry