Book Browsing

To familiarize my students with the books in my classroom library and to prepare them for Read To Self (part of Daily 5), I introduce the I-PICK strategy for choosing books (from Daily 5). I bring in a variety of shoes... some of mine, some of my husband's and some of my children's shoes. I talk about going running and then show them a pair of my daughter's flip flops. Would these work to run in? No, they don't fit me and they aren't for the right purpose? How about my high heels? No, they do fit, but they aren't for the right purpose? But my running shoes will work. When my husband rides his bike, he wears his special biking shoes. When we go to the beac or to 7 Peaks, I wear my flip flops. And so on.

Just as we need shoes that fit us and that are designed for the right purpose, we need books that fit us too. Just because a book is a good fit for our friend, doesn't necessarily make it a good fit for us. So we use the I-PICK strategy:
I pick a book:
P: Purpose...why am I reading the book?
I: Interest...does this book interest me?
C: Comprehension... does this book make sense? Can I understand it?
K: Know the words...can I read most/all of the words?
(For more information about this, I highly recommend the book Daily Five.

After I introduce this strategy, I show them how my classroom library is set up and the books are labeled. Then I pull some of the book boxes off the shelves and let them browse through books at each table (giving them about 3-4 minutes at each table and then letting them move to the next table) so they can choose about 6 or 7 books to put in their book bag. I watch and assist and listen in. This year, one of my students told me he only liked sports books. So I let him choose a couple of sports books but then encouraged him to just look at books in some of the other baskets. Soon he was coming over to me to show me the other books he'd found that he knew he would love. He said, "Wow! There are a lot of great books here. I found a lot of books to read!"

After this initial time, each table is assigned a day to trade books at the beginning of the day, so they trade once a week. Three or four times a year, I have them empty their bags completely, and then allow them a chance to do another book browsing. They love this activity, and I enjoy watching to see which books they are choosing and listening in to their conversations about books.