Love at First Line

In an attempt to entice students to pick up new books, I had them complete a Love at First Line assignment.  They randomly selected books, read the first line, and when they found one they found particularly titillating, they emailed me with the:

1. Book title
2. Author
3. Line


It looked like this:

Title: Afterparty

By: Ann Redisch Stampler 

First sentence: "It is not the ending I expected." 

In the end, we have a bunch of lines that are compelling (and hopefully will draw more readers to the stacks).  I plan to make a display outside of our classroom that highlights the selected lines--and feels Valentiney in some way.  😍

Here are some of my favorites that they sent me:

My whole Life, I’ve never been brave.

"The world was smoke"

"Today I have made a major decision: I am never going to die."

"It is not the ending I expected." 

"Saving the human race is a frantic business."

I need to tell this story quickly, or we're all going to die.

I like to save things.

Sometimes you have to lie.

The calendar said early March, but the smell in the air said late October. 

“I liked hurting girls.”

"2031 doesn't seem that long ago to me."

When Michael woke up he had a not-so-pleasant taste of bile rising in his throat.

Readers are Leaders

This year, I decided to try to motivate students to read by displaying WHOLE CLASS progress.  In our class, when students finish reading an independent reading book, they share with the class:

1.  What they read
2. a summary of the book (no spoilers!)
3. a rating of the book (scale 1-10)
4.  what type of reader they think would enjoy this book.

They earn a ribbon to add to our board, and we add to our whole class tally.  So far, I think it has been working--more and more students share their reading, and as a result, I think more students are willing to share their accomplishments.

Here is our current board: