Helping Students Find the Right Book

Something I often fear is that I won't have a large enough span of genre in my classroom book collection. If there is one thing I've learned over my education is that exposing students to various genres can be very beneficial to their learning. Not only exposure to different genres, but books within those genres that are going to keep the reader engaged and wanting more.

Every young reader is different and I want to talk about some things that can help a teacher be their best at helping students find the perfect books for them. Showing a science-fiction lover non-fiction could open their eyes to a new world of literature. Showing a poetry lover short stories written in verse could spark their interest into many new genres.

I hope to be that teacher that can know a student so well that when they are looking for a new book, I will know exactly how to keep their interest sparked with a book that is perfect for them. I think that is a big factor in finding the perfect book for your student to read. To speed up this process, doing interest survey's at the beginning of the year can be very helpful.

Something else that I think is super important when helping a student start a new book is to let them know that if they are absolutely not getting into the book after page 40, drop it! Let's find a new one! Sometimes books just don't click and thats OK, that happens to readers of all ages and levels.

Make an effort to talk about new books with your students! It wouldn't take more than 30 seconds to bring a new YA discovery of yours to class, hold it up for the students to see or hand it around, give a little synopsis, and let them know its available for any of them to check out!