Choosing Books for Students

Every year I have always had students complete an Interest Inventory. This year in addition to the Interest Inventory, I had students complete a book choice form. (If I ever look into google docs, I'd be more than willing to share it!) It has three main parts/questions.

1. "Do you like to read fiction or nonfiction?" (I put what each means in parenthesis)
2. "When you read informational books, what are you most interested in?" (I have a list and ask them to choose their top 3. Some things on the list are: animals, jobs, sports, weather, social studies, etc.


3. **I can't remember how it's worded**, but something to the extent of "Tell me something else you enjoy reading about".

It was short and sweet and gave me the information I needed. Last night I looked them over and circled/highlighted key words on each students book choice form. Today I looked through my classroom library and pulled out any books I thought a student would be interested in, based on the book choice forms and interest inventories. The most common responses were: animals, weather, and solar system. Some were broad and some were specific. One student told me she loved The Babysitter's Club (OH MY, that brings back memories, I LOVED them as a little girl!), one student told me she loved anything history, etc. Here are some of the books I put into a big pile while I was searching! I was so excited when I saw the book "Bugs, Bugs, Bugs" because one little girl and her mother both told me how she loves to look at bugs, go exploring in the back yard for bugs, etc. I think she'll love reading it! This child in particular put that she loved horses and she enjoyed reading about the ocean. So, here is what I left on her desk this afternoon! I love the idea of a book frenzy, like in The Book Whisperer and we will spend some time talking about our books, exchanging books (if needed), etc. I felt like I needed to assist them in picking out books this time and talk about what good readers look/sound like. I am actually going to spend more time (lots next week!) on this and how to pick out a just right book. I'm excited to see what they think of their books tomorrow!