Book Whisperer Chapter Four

I am running a little behind with my Book Whisperer posts! I am loving loving loving this book!  Here are my thoughts on chapter 4.
Discussion Questions:
1) How do you plan to give your students reading freedom?  I plan on letting my students choose their own books from our classroom library during the first days of school and continue to check them out all year.  I want to build independent reading into my daily routine and model when to take out your book and read.  My students will also have library class once a week with our new school librarian, Mrs. Harp.
2) What are your favourite reading lessons to start the school year with?
I typically begin my school year with classroom library procedures and how we choose books.  This year I want to do some of the inner voice lessons from Strategies that Work and the Comprehension Toolkit.  I also love the idea of the reading salad from Comprehension Connections.
3) What would your genre requirement look like? Why would you pick these genres?
I got a wonderful resources from Mrs. Runde- her 30 Book Challenge!  I tweaked the genre requirements she had come up with based on my classroom library and what I have observed from past students and here they are:

      2 Poetry Anthologies

      2 Fiction

     2 Historical Fiction

    5 Realistic Fiction

      3 Fantasy

      2 Mystery

      4 Informational

     2 Biography

         8 Your Choice


4) As we are half way through The Book Whisperer what goals have you made for your reading program for this coming school year? This year I want to have more student led discussions about books.  I want them to talk about books they like or don't like, recommend books for each other, and learn to talk about themseleves as readers.  I plan on doing this by conferring with students about the books they are reading and hosting book talk afternoons.  I will have to set up clear expectations and model but I think it will def. be worth it!