Genre browsing & book speed dating

Over the past week-and-a-half, all of the sixth grade ELA teachers' classes and one of the seventh grade teachers' classes cycled through the library to find books for their book reports.  I love it when students visit for book reports, as it's a great opportunity to remind them that even assigned reading can be fun!

Sixth grade classes had super short visits, but I didn't want to miss an opportunity for a quick library lesson.  We started each visit with a quick review of our genre categories (and discussed how graphic novel is a format NOT a genre but still gets a special label in our space):

    

I recently got boxes upon boxes of new middle grades and YA fiction, so I laid out all of the new books by genre category.

Students spent 10 minutes browsing the new books (or the stacks, if they preferred).  After four days of four classes a day, many of our new titles were in students' hands!

When I confirmed our visits with the seventh grade teacher, he said "let's do a whole period!"  While I wanted to focus again on genre categories, the sixth grade activity wasn't suitable for a full period.  After browsing some lesson options, I settled on a book speed dating activity!  Check out this great free resource from TPT:  Speed Dating Score Sheet

When students arrived, I prepped them for the activity then assigned four students to each table.  When students arrived at the table, they found a score sheet and a book at each place, as well as a genre category sheet.  

Our ESOL teacher co-teaches this seventh grade class, and the majority of our ELL students speak Spanish, so each table also included a novel in Spanish as an option.  This book was in the middle of each table, and any student could review it while at the table.

I used a free classroom timer to manage the activity.  Students spent three minutes with the book at their seat, noting the title, author, and genre, giving the book a rating, and making any notes they wanted about the book.  After three minutes, each student passed their book to the person on their right.  After four rounds at a table, the students then shifted over a table for four more rounds.  

This activity allowed students to sample titles from most of our genres, as I made sure that each two tables included a sampling of at least eight of our nine categories.  At the conclusion of the speed dating rounds, students who had rated a book as one they wanted to read got to check out the book for their book projects.  Others hit the stacks to browse, hopefully with a better idea of an appealing genre.

Both activities were loads of fun, and I look forward to doing them with other classes in the future.