Blog #9 Power of Collaboration

Over the years, by collaborating with others, I have been able to fill my teacher tool kit with a variety of strategies and activities that help me to better meet the needs of students. In my experience working with middle school students, I have found it essential to have a wide array of tools in order to keep learners engaged and invested in learning. Engaging middle school students in reading can be challenging and can require some creative ideas to hook them into reading. In recent years, by observing my colleagues I have learned two new strategies to engage all readers, 1) book tastings, 2) book-talk cafes.

Book Tasting: 

Last spring, I was fortunate to observe our Secondary Librarian invite students to a book tasting. During the book tasting, our librarian transformed the library into a cafe complete with placemats and menus. Instead of a menu of food, this cafe offered a tasting of books, organized by genre. During the book tasting, students were invited to choose a table. When arriving at a table, students were invited to record the title and genre of the book and then are invited to look at the front and back covers and read the inside flaps. After that student are invited to browse the book. After about 3-5 minutes students are invited to write down observations and note if they would like to add their book to their, "want to read list". Students continued to rotate tables every 5-7 minutes in order to “taste” all the different genres available at the tasting. A book tasting is a fun way to motivate students to explore new books. 

Book-Talk Cafes: 

Engaging students in meaningful talk about books help to build a community of readers. One of my favorite strategies for increasing student talk about books is to create a book-talk cafe. This is a strategy that I first observed a few years ago in a grade six English classroom. During a book-talk cafe, the teacher transforms the classroom into a cafe by cover desks with table clothes and offering a small selection of light refreshments such as tea, hot chocolate, oranges, and popcorn. The cafe begins by having students sit at tables of four to five students. While at the table students are able to enjoy the refreshments and also talk about a book they are reading. Each student at the table takes a turn providing a short summary of the book they read and stating what they liked about the book. By transforming the classroom into a cafe it creates a comfortable and relaxed atmosphere in the classroom which helps students to engage in an authentic discussion of books.