The purpose of creating Book Recommendations is to get your fifth grader reading books they might not normally choose and to increase their love of reading. This is a personal challenge for each student, not a contest or competition between students. Instead, reading avidly and from a variety of genres is a proven way to become a better reader. I will be assisting students as needed to pick out appropriate, appealing books for his or her reading level; and we will be discussing the book, their thoughts and feelings about books and authors, in a weekly interactive journal; as well as the students will be completing and adding a Book Recommendation to this page.
There’s the right book for you out there somewhere! For many students, trying a lot of books helps them find the one type of text that excites them and invites them into reading. True preferences come from years of wide reading, trying books, having some false starts, discovering authors, genres, and writing styles that we enjoy. Students who haven’t read much may not have found the books that speak to them. A Book Recommendation is buffet-style tasting all types of books through which students can discover what the world of reading has to offer.
Whether you read or not isn’t a choice, but what you read is YOUR choice. Everybody reads here! Everybody is a reader! Whether you read or not is off the table, but what you read is your choice. Whatever you want. You pick! Providing students with choice in what they read increases their reading motivation and engagement (Gambrell, Coding, & Palmer, 1996; Worthy & McKool, 1996; Guthrie & Wigfield, 2000).
On your mark... Get set... READ and then add your Book Recommendation!