Get Kids Hooked on Books With a Book Pass

Many of my students were "book shopping" more often than they needed to be during Reader's Workshop.  

I had tried all of the traditional methods suggested such as setting up specific days for book shopping, mini-lessons on picking good-fit books, etc., but nothing was working!  

Every time I looked up, the same few students were in the library instead of reading their books!

I happened to stumble across this post  from Teaching ELA with Joy. It was all about having a successful Book Pass in your classroom.

I decided to try it out. The idea of a Book Pass is for the teacher to provide students with a variety of compelling books.  The students read each book's blurb and the first few pages, then rate the book according to their interest.

I made a few changes to the Book Pass described in Joy's post because I have a diverse level of readers in my classroom (from a level 12 DRA to a level 60 DRA).  

Instead of doing the activity whole class, I placed my students in table groups according to their book level.  I placed good fit books at each table so that no one would be frustrated by reading a book that was too difficult for them.

Here's the process of the Book Pass:

• Student chooses one of the books in the pile on their table.

• Student records the title and author of the book on their Book Pass Sheet.

• Student silently reads the "blurb" on the back of the book. 

• Student opens the book to the first page and begins reading silently for 2 minutes.

• Teacher calls time at the end of the 2 minutes.  Student records interest level, then passes the book to the next person at the table.

• Student receives the next book and the process is repeated until all students have finished previewing each book at their table.

I had my students put their completed Book Pass Sheets in their binders so that they will have a list of books to read next.  This has saved so much time with the book shopping process!  Students are able to grab the next book they need.

To grab complete instructions and the Book Pass Sheet, grab the freebie here at my Teachers pay Teachers store.

And... don't forget to check out our giveaway page to enter our current giveaway!