Do your students read the same genre over and over? Have you tried to get them to read different types of books, but they just keep going back to the first one? Are you looking for a way to get them hooked on something new? Then this just might be the strategy for you!
Reading Musical Chairs
This year I decided to try “Reading ‘Musical’ Chairs”. (I know I’ve heard of other teachers doing this, but here I share my take on it with you.) Just like the game with music, you put a group of chairs – no matter how large or small – into a circle facing outward. But you will need just as many chairs as there are people, and you will not need any music. (Although you could easily add music and change with each new song or some other type of signal.)
Next have each student bring a book. The first time we did this I asked each student to bring in their favorite chapter book. We then sat in a chair (myself included), randomly opened our own book to any part we wanted, and read for a designated about of time – typically 5-7 minutes. At that point, I simply said “switch”, we moved to the next book (going clockwise), randomly chose a page to start on, and continued reading.
It never ceased to amaze me how quiet my students were during this activity! They really got into the books. Sometimes when we would switch I would have to quiet someone from telling me all about the section they just read – but if that is my biggest problem, I can totally deal with it! 🙂
The next couple times we did this, I would have students choose books to bring to our circle in random ways. For example, I might ask them to bring a book they didn’t think any of their classmates had read. Or another day I asked them to quickly choose a book from my library to read. And another time I told them to bring a classic or award winning book. This way I knew they were seeing different ones.
One of the reasons I feel this was so successful was because I always saved about five minutes of our time period to discuss the books as a group. This way students could reflect on what they had read, ask questions of one another, and just share their excitement about books in general. I know students chose new books to read from this experience. When I do this activity again this fall, I’m also going to have students write down the books they found interesting in their notebooks. This way they will always (hopefully!) have a couple “go to” books they can check out the next time they are wanting something new.
Here are a couple other modifications you could try, depending on your class make-up. I did this activity during my reading intervention time with some of my higher readers. But this could easily be done with a large group. You could either have one large circle, or you could split into several smaller circles based on ability, favorite genre, or anything else you could think of! Or one day you could choose the books for students to read. Once you give it a try, you’ll see what works best for you and you’ll want to keep going with it!
I LOVE this idea! I have small groups (I am a resource teacher) but I am going to try this for sure. What a fun way to practice reading. Since I have low ability level readers I think I will choose the books or passages ahead of time. I am thinking of making a game out of it where after they have been passed around they will have to discuss and decide which genre each book was (or which type of writing, point of view, etc.). Imagine the possibilities! Thanks so much for sharing this terrific idea!!
I've done this several times and had GREAT results!!
Shannon
http://www.irunreadteach.wordpress.com
This is a great idea. I agree that students need to vary their genre selections but I also have such a tough time trying to force a read on them. I want them to have complete freedom and ownership in what they read. This sounds like a fun way to get them to choose something else. 🙂
~Brandee
Creating Lifelong Learners
What a great idea! I've never heard of this before, but I think I'll give it a try. I've got to shake things up to survive the next 9 days!
Sally from Elementary Matters
This is a fabulous idea! Can't wait to try it next year!!
Hi.. But how will children have continuity in their reading if they switch in between?
This activity doesn't promote continuity. Rather, it allows the students to explore various genres or books they may like to read down the road. It's great to give them a few minutes at the end of the time to write down the names of any books they particularly liked to add them to their "must read" list. I found this activity worked, but I did it just 5-6 times each year when I was hearing a lot of "but I don't know what to read".
Hope that helps! 🙂
~HoJo~
I just wanted to say thank you for the idea! I used this today in my library with 7th graders. Each chair had a sci-fic book and they were able to read snippets of several books within this genre before checking out a book!
Thanks so much for the great idea! I am a school library media specialist and had no idea what I was going to do with a sixth grade class in the last period on a Friday right before vacation. This was great!
I absolutely love THIs idea. Thank you for sharing. I am trying this woth my students next week.
You’re welcome! I hope it went over well. 🙂
love this idea! I would love to share this with my teachers! May I post it on my school blogspot? PGREEN220.BLOGSPOT.Com
You are free to include a link on your blog back to my site, but please do not copy my wording or images. Thank you!