Investigating Literature

We welcomed track 3 students this week when we met with our Dolphin Readers group. After a quick introduction to their role as media program and reading advocates, these 7th and 8th graders joined our track 1 students who have already been working hard at reading, writing book reviews, and sharing with each other. All students selected a “Book Starter” slip to select their next book to read and review. Slips contained a specific statement, which guided students as they searched through the media collection to find a matching book. Starter Slip statements included ~

• Find a book that has a main character with siblings.


• Find a book that was written when you were 5 years old.


• Find a book that has the name of a food in the title.


• Find a book set in a place you'd like to visit.
  

After selecting a book, students began a NoveList investigation. This K-8 Literature database contains some wonderful search features, book lists, and curriculum-related lessons. Dolphin Readers began preparing a short presentation which they will share with their classmates in a few weeks. My favorite features of this site are the "describe a plot" search and "find similar books" option. These two search strategies allow students to truly customize their searching to find books they'll be most interested in. I'm looking forward to seeing what neat NoveList features our Dolphin Readers uncover in their investigations over the coming weeks.

-Ms. Z