Book Tasting...Take Two

You might remember from a post last school year that I did some non-fiction book tastings based on some posts from other Media Specialists.  I decided that even my firsties could use a little book tasting fun, so after our lesson a few weeks ago about finding "Just Right Books" I did a book tasting with them last week to help put into practice finding a "Just Right" book.

This is the form we used.

I divided the class into four groups and provided each group with a stack of about 12 books for them to browse.  I let them choose one book for us to "taste" together and we went through the form one question at a time.

I did go around to each table to listen to each student read one page.  This took some time, but as students were waiting, they could color on the back of the sheet or continue looking through the book they were tasting.

When we were finished, we talked about how we could tell based on our answers if the book would be "just right" or not. I invited students who found a "just right" book to check that book out.  If they didn't find a "just right" book during the tasting, they were free to look for one during our check out time.

 

You can get a copy of the PowerPoints I used to introduce this lesson by clicking on the pictures above.

Overall, I think it was a good lesson and the feedback I got from the first grade teachers was positive.  I will be doing a similar lesson with second grade this week, with just a few minor tweaks.

I teach second grade how to look for books on their reading level using the AR book levels inside the book as one of the ways to find a "good fit" book.  I've added this step to the form.  You can find both the first grade and second grade versions of this form in the same document by clicking here.

For those of you who have asked, I have put together the "book tasting" packet I mentioned on the earlier post.  Because this idea was not my original idea, I am putting a link to it here from my Google Drive.  It is a zip file that contains the PowerPoints mentioned in this post, as well as the PowerPoint for the first Book Tasting lesson, and the forms needed to complete the book tastings mentioned in this post as well as the first book tasting post.

Hope you enjoy!

UPDATE:  I was a guest on Jocelyn Sams' Elementary Librarian's podcast and I shared all about my book tasting experiences. You can listen to the podcast here.  I had so much fun and hope to be a guest on her podcast again soon.  =)