reading ...the next dimension

o Colby Sharp Rant http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aiu6ujRmal0

Here are six ways you might use Goodreads in the Classroom:

1. Use the student group feature. There are well over 3000 student groups underway at Goodreads! Teachers can use the group feature to post topics or extend classroom discussion. Students could use also use this feature to post their progress with independent novel choices or to post reader response journals. Separate lit circle groups could be established to keep the in-class discussions going. Student groups would be an excellent option for extra-curricular book clubs at your school.

2. Research reading selections. Students can use the overviews and user reviews to select potential novels and add them to their to-read bookshelf.

3. Have your students join the Reading Challenge, set their targets and record their progress.

4. Use the fan feature for active goodread authors and follow their updates and posts. This would be a great option if you chose a recently published novel for your class and were lucky enough to establish contact with the author ahead of time. Perhaps the author would be willing to answer a few questions the class comes up with.

5. Discuss the public rating and review features of the site to have your students generate the criteria for creating meaningful book reviews. Your students could then write and post reviews based on that criteria. Those reviews could be shared, "liked" and commented on by classmates.

6. Use the public discussion feature to have you students post to threads about the novel they are reading. A little diligence would be required here to select threads that are active and worthwhile.

Goodreads Groups, Questions, Author Chats, etc.

Groups

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Donalyn Miller is currently a fifth grade at O.A. Peterson Elementary in Forth Worth, Texas.. Donalyn is the author of The Book Whisperer: Awakening the Inner Reader in Every Child and the forthcoming Reading in the Wild, and she has blogged at The Book Whisperer, for Education Week Teacher. Donalyn lives atop a dragon’s hoard of unread books and spends her spare time traveling, visiting old friends, and daydreaming in the pages. You can find her on Twitter @donalynbooks.Colby Sharp is a 3rd grade teacher.You can find him on Twitter @colbysharp.Cindy Minnich makes her home in the lovely river town of Millersburg, PA with her husband, son, and a menagerie of fuzzy children. She teaches 9th and 12th grade English at Upper Dauphin Area High School. Maybe she shouldn’t admit this, but she probably likes technology almost as much as she loves books. You can find her on Twitter @CBethM.

We have five different types of posts you can choose to write. 1. Reading Lives are about our lives as readers. See www.nerdybookclub.wordpress.com/category/reading-lives/ for examples. 2. New Book Reviews are for books within 18 months of their publication. 3. Retro Reviews are for books that have been out longer than 18 months. 4. Pay It Forward posts are about promoting the love of reading to others. See www.nerdybookclub.wordpress.com/category/pay-it-forward/ for examples.5. Top Ten posts are lists of ten books or things about books. (See www.nerdybookclub.wordpress.com/category/top-ten-lists/ for examples.)

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