Hook Them In With Book Choice- Freebie

We all know that student choice is a powerful thing.  Using choice as your hook is a great way to build excitement and interest into your reading lessons.

One of my small groups had finished a Cam Jansen book.  They had really enjoyed the book, but I wanted them to have some choice in our next selection to be read.  I set out 3  different selections of books in different areas of the room.  The students traveled to the different areas to preview the books and take notes over them.

I love the notes in the first section of this one- very cool, but not for me!  She was not a spider lover!  Students noticed the genres and thought about if the book would be a good choice for them or not.  It is interesting to me that the kids mostly thought ALL the books would be good books, but definitely had a number one choice.  It was like they didn't want to say any of the books would be a bad choice!

After they previewed and even read a bit of the books and took notes on them they numbered their choices.  Majority votes won.  But another great thing you can do is set out the #2 and #3 choices for those who wanted to read them and they can read them during their free time.  Everyone wins- students are reading and interested in more books!

After the notes have been taken and they have chosen their top pick, the students are ready to explain why we should be reading their book choice.  

We were working on providing evidence of our thinking.  Then comes the really fun part!

I didn't let the students know what book had been the popular choice.  I wrapped them up in some pretty paper and set the gift out the next day.

The students were SO excited to see what books were inside the box!  It was a great way to build up excitement in reading and in our next unit.  They couldn't wait to rip that package open and get to the new books and start reading!!!

If you would like the book choice pages just click here or click the picture above to download it.  

This freebie works well with My Interactive Reader's Notebook.  You can insert this book choice freebie into the comprehension section.  Click here to see it or click the pictures.