This lesson is designed to engage high school students in the act of selecting reading material for pleasure. Intended for a school with an institutional free, voluntary reading program or any silent sustained reading time, it strives to solve the problem of students aimlessly grabbing for something (anything!) to read during that time. It incorporates a bit of soul-searching as well as some simple technology integration. In addition to students making more focused reading choices, the end result will also be a library media center decorated with stunning word cloud collages. The lesson is for one 50 minute class period; it includes a buILder. In general, the 9th grade humanities classes schedule this library time in the beginning of the school year, but it can be used anytime with other grades as well.

Instructional Goals:

• Students will discover and articulate their own reading interests.
• Students will create ways of organizing their reading interests into lists.
• Students will locate an item of reading pleasure.

Learning Objectives:

• Students will create a handwritten free-write of their reading interests.
• With the help of a partner, students will categorize and edit their free-write and create at least two “thematic” (and spell-checked) lists using Word, the word processing program. Each list should have a title and at least ten items on it.
• Using Wordle, a free online graphic organizer of sorts, students will create at least one word cloud collage using the best of their lists.
• Students will locate an item and explain, in their own words, how it relates to their reading interests.

 

Motivational Goals:

• Students will be attracted to the idea of self-introspection and will gain confidence in knowing their own areas of interest.
• Students will be excited to find reading materials based on the lists they have made.
• Students will have a sense of pride in their creations, in both the content and the aesthetics.

See attached lesson plan in Supporting Files.

 

See buILder at http://www.informationliteracy.org/builder/1845

 

Rubric [included in the attached lesson plan in Supporting Files]

See attached lesson plan in Supporting Files

See attached lesson plan in Supporting Files