I have to admit, it was a lot of fun to prepare for this presentation. My biggest challenge was recruiting teachers since I am the new (and only) librarian on campus this year. I didn't see as many classes I as would have liked, but I am very appreciative of the ones who did come. I saw 11 classes in total. I did 3 "Blind Dates" and 8 "Speed Dating." To be honest, I did not try the reading restaurant/book tasting because the thought of transforming my library into a restaurant was too exhausting for me. However, I must admit, my "Blind Date" events had A LOT of prep work.
The technology I used with my events include QR Codes, Kahoot, Padlet, Twitter, Instagram, Piktochart, and Google Docs, Slides and Forms. Below you will find my prep notes (including the technology I used) and lessons for my part of the presentation.
Although I only did 2 out of the 3 reading activities, there ended up being 4 different lesson plans. I adjusted and reorganized as I found something that worked better than my original plan. You know how that goes. The "Book Reveal" was handled differently than the "Blind Date with a Book" classes. One set of "Book Speed Dating" was slightly different than the other. You'll see what I mean if you continue reading.
Book Speed Dating with Coach Thomason's classes
Coach Thomason was the first teacher I talked into the speed dating activity. Coach Thomason teaches 4 sections of English IV. Each class has 28-32 students. Here is what the activity looked like, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1E--VP7fWt1HiQEQ0Gq4D_tNtmVTbBuqy/view
Here is what I did to prepare for these classes
- Decided upon 7 genres to display (if I did this over again, I would send out a Google form to ask the students their favorite genres ahead of time)
- Pulled 15-20 books per genre and place them on a cart near the designated area for the classes
- Made genre signs to put on each of the tables. My example: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SxvuMwG_BNoRA1bWO8Ua8N1CyzUEyWdz/view?usp=sharing
- I had 14 tables in the biggest area of the library. So I pushed 2 tables together to create 7 genre stations.
- Created a Kahoot quiz to review the genres
- 5 minutes before the class came into the library, I passed out the books, one per seat.
Some organizational tips during the activity
- I had 7 genres stations, but the students were only going to travel to 4 tables. So I let the students know ahead of time that they needed to choose their tables wisely because they weren’t going to all 7.
- If the student found a book at the 1st table he/she really wanted, he/she could take that book with him to the 2nd table. If he/she found a better book at one of the other stations, I would take the book no longer wanted back and put it on my cart. Since I pulled so many books, if the student could not decide, I gave him/her both books. Who am I to deny a child who wants more books instead of less!
- If the student was unable to find a book among the tables, the teacher allowed the class to browse the shelves for 10 mins.
- As the students travelled from one table to the next, I took that time to fill in the holes where the books had been taken.
Book Speed Dating with Ms. Hollinger's classes
Ms. Hollinger teaches 4 sections of Intro to Child Development. Each class has 18-22 students. Here is what the activity looked like for her classes,
Here is what I did to prepare for these classes
- Decided upon 7 genres to display (same 7 as the other classes so I could reuse the Kahoot quiz)
- Pulled 15-20 books per genre and place them on a cart near the designated area for the classes
- Made table number signs to put on each of the tables (not genre signs). Instead of grouping tables by genres, I mixed the genres on each table. This eliminated students travelling from table to table. Instead, after reviewing a book, the students would pass the books to the right and start over.
- I had 14 tables in the biggest area of the library. So I only used 7 of the 14 tables.
- 5 minutes before the class came into the library, I passed out the books, one per seat.
Some organizational tips during the activity
- During Kahoot activity, we played in teams. The person with the device used their table number for the name of the team, and for nicknames, it was student initials only. No extra words, nicknames or emojis.
- If the student was unable to find a book at the table where they chose to sit, the teacher allowed the class to browse the other tables for 10 mins.
- After the class left, I filled in the blank places with the books I had previously pulled.
Book Reveal with Ms. Shipe's Anime Club
I targeted the Anime Club for this particular event because I just received a big shipment of books, many of them were graphic novels and manga. I thought it would be fun to introduce the students to the new books. Here is what that activity looked like, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1clE80I2U8NhMOHqrurryKO91iHaR9J5W/view
Here is what I did to prepare for the Anime Club
- Decided upon 6 manga/graphic novel genres to display. I picked the most popular from the manga survey the students took the week before.
- Decided to call the activity a “book reveal” instead of “blind date with a book” because most of the group consisted of 9th graders (according to the survey) who probably don’t “date.”
- Pulled 5 books per genre and placed them on a cart. I took photos of the first page of each book. Then I posted them to Twitter using #bookreveal and #shsbook1 (or whatever book number I designated).
- I picked a different color for each genre and wrapped the books. Then I wrote the hashtags on each book and numbered them. Once the students saw the color of their book and the hashtags, they could use their devices to find the book on Twitter to try and guess what they had. Some students worked in pairs or in groups of 3-4.
- I had 6 tables in the smaller area of the library. So I used all 6 tables. Since this was a club event, I did not number the tables and the students were free to roam about the tables at will. I did not time them.
Some organizational tips during the activity
- If students didn’t bring a pen or pencil, I had colored pencils on each table they could use. BTW, I found that colored pencils are more likely to be returned to the table; pens and pencils tend to walk away.
- If the student was unable to find a book among the tables, I showed them our manga section where they could choose one or 2 of their favorites. However, most of them picked a new book from the book reveal activity.
Blind Date with a Book with Ms. Hollinger's classes
Ms. Hollinger has an additional 2 classes of Principals of Education. We decided to treat these classes differently and do the Blind Date activity. This is what the activity looked like for her classes,
Here is what I did to prepare for these classes
- Decided upon 7 genres to display (same 7 as the other groups to reuse the Kahoot quiz)
- Pulled 8 books per genre and placed them on a cart. I took photos of groups of 4. So each genre had 2 photos. I created QR codes to go with each set of 4 books. I picked a different color for each genre and wrapped the books. Then I placed the QR code on the outside of the book. Once the students scanned the code, they knew that their book was one of the 4 books in the picture.
- Made table signs, not genre signs as I decided to mix the genres on each table since they were color coded. My example of table signs: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lsr6enjXAjS9ln11RTEE658zSqH1-WVwXfAUm-VM28s/edit?usp=sharing
- I have 14 tables in the biggest area of the library. So I used 7 tables since I needed 7 genre stations and put the table signs on the tables selected..
- 5 minutes before the class came into the library, I passed out the books, mixing the genres, one per seat.
Some organizational tips during the activity
- During Kahoot quiz, students played in teams. The name of their team was the number on the table, and their nicknames were the students’ initials. No extra words or emojis allowed.
- If students didn’t bring a pen.pencil, I had colored pencils on each table they could use. BTW, I found that colored pencils are more likely to be returned to the table; pens and pencils tend to walk away.
- If the student was unable to find a book among the tables, the teacher allowed the class to browse the shelves for 10 mins.
- As one group of students left and another took its place, I used that time to fill in the gaps where books were taken and checked out.
I realize this post was rather long. Sorry about that. I hope that is not any indication of how long the presentation is going to be. For those of you who are going to TCEA, we are presenting at 8 am on Thursday, Feb. 8 at the Hilton near the Austin Convention Center.
Every day is an adventure!
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