Category — Our Dear Books

For the summer, the Elementary Library at the International School of Beijing is promoting two different Summer Reading Projects. For the lower elementary, we’re asking students to make Story Sacks out of their favorite books. Then in August, when their favorite books get checked out, the new readers have a little treat to accompany the read. In the upper elementary, we’re asking the students to create a visual representation of their favorite books.  Again in August, we plan to run this student generated slideshow on our new, large, library screen.  Both projects are not limited to lower or upper school students. An upper elementary student may create a Story Sack and vice versa for lower elementary students if they’d like to make a visual representation.  Mainly, the focus, is to share your favorite summer reads when we return in August!

Click on the following links for the project details:

Summer Reading Project for LES

Summer Reading Project for UES

Speed book talking is a great way to share what you’ve been reading with a large group of people.  When there is a group of 40 readers, it’s difficult to (and possibly intimidating) for people to share to that large of a group. But, if the group is separated into groups of 3-4, it’s much easier to listen and share what you’ve been reading.

To set up a speed book chat follow these directions:

1. In a large space designate a place for each smaller group to book talk;
2. Divide the group into 3-4 people;
3. One person will stay in the designated place, one will move forward (or to the right) to the next place, and the other will move backward (or to the left) to the previous place;
4. At this time, the group is given approximately 5 minutes to talk about what they have been reading. Each individual should share what they did or did not like about a book and in turn listen to others in the group;
5. After about 5 minutes a bell will sound, and it’s time for those individuals moving on to move while the one individual stays put;
6. Once everyone is settle, the second book talk may begin with new people. Listen and share what’s being read;
7. Repeat this movement until everyone is sufficed with book talking.

Definitely a few new recommended reads will come out of a good speed book talk!

While not all nonfiction text is arranged in the same way, there do happen to be many common characteristics that some nonfiction titles share. For example, a table of contents, headings in bold, captions identifying pictures, diagrams, graphs, or charts, a glossary, and index might be present.

Table of Contents
The table of contents is found within the first few pages of the book, and it tells the order by page number in which information is found within the book.

Headings
The headings guide the reader through the book by  specifying the certain sections that are being read. The headings are usually in bold or in a different color guiding the reader as to what section they are in.  Captions
Captions are found above, underneath, or beside a picture or graphic image. The caption gives information about what is visually being presented.

Diagrams, Charts, or Graphs
When an image is found in nonfiction that explains information in more detail, it is most likely a diagram, chart, graph, or map.  This visual image may actually be read and therefore adds informational content to the nonfiction book.

Glossary
Sometimes the words in a nonfiction book might be new or unknown to the reader.  The glossary is found in the back of a nonfiction book offering a definition for difficult words found throughout the text.

Index
The index is the very last thing found in a nonfiction book. Ordered by subject, it details which page information within the book may be found. It is different from the table of contents as it is organized in alphabetical order.  If a reader knows exactly which information they are looking for, the index provides a great first point of looking.