Decide on a theme. I chose nonfiction as my overarching theme for the 21-22 school year because I wanted to do something completely different from what I had done in the past. And, honestly, I myself don't read a lot of nonfiction and thought this would be personally challenging for me.

In the evaluation forms that students filled out at the conclusion of the project, I asked for recommendations on possible future themes. Student suggestions ranged from science fiction to mystery to historical fiction.

Once I have a theme selected, my librarian/techie teacher bff and I come up with subcategories for the theme and start building selection options in each subcategory. I usually start thinking about next school year's theme while completing the current year's project. I then come up with subcategories and begin curating selection titles throughout the fall semester.

Create a thematic interest form based on subcategories and distribute to students. To create a copy of the form for our nonfiction theme, click here.

Divide students into groups of three to four (ideally) based on thematic interest form results. I create group names with a corresponding emoji based on subcategories. For example, group names this year included 👨‍🔬 Mad Scientists (science based nonfiction), 🎨 Art Cookies (creativity based nonfiction), 🦸 The Justice League (social justice based nonfiction), and 💪 History Buffs (historically based nonfiction).

Once students are assigned a group, each group creates a Google Hangout feed for all members (and the teacher) and labels the feed with the group name and emoji tag. This creates an easy way for everyone (including me) to communicate. And it provides written documentation of collaboration.