Activity # 10

For the last activity, I decided to check out Goodreads a bit more.  I signed up to use it for personal use, but it has been a few months since I looked at my account.  I kind of forgot what a great website it is!  My favorite part is that you get recommendations for other books based on what you've read and liked.  It's also fun to see what other people and reading, and how they rated the books they've read.  I love learning about new books I may want to read!

In doing this assignment, I had to shift my thinking to how I would use this in my classroom.  First of all, I learned you have to be 13 to have your own account, so my students wouldn't be able to use it as a reading log, etc., which I think would be a cool way to encourage independent reading.  As my own kids get older, I will definitely encourage them to use this website.  As a teacher, I could let parents know about the website, and maybe they could use it together with their kids.  It's a great way to discover new books!

So for this assignment, I decided to set up a separate account as a teacher.  To start, I just checked an interest youth and young adult books.  I rated youth and young adult books books I've personally read, but then I also marked books I think my students may be able to read.  I tried to focus on easy chapter books.  I figured this would be a good way for parents to access which books we may be reading in class, (which I would mark as, "currently reading") and/or options of recommended books (which I would mark as, "want to read") for their kids to read at home.  I'm thinking I could offer some kind of extra credit if the kids go on the website with their parents and read one of the "want to read" books on their own.

I decided to start with The Boxcar Children, (which I already rated since it is one of my favorites) but I marked it as "currently reading" on the website, because I would read this book together with my students in class.  It's a good reading level for them and I think it would keep their interest!  We could do the comments together as a class when we're done and add them to the webpage.



The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



View all my reviews