Student Contributor: K. Johansen
This tool is helpful to introduce students to new books when they are required to have independent reading time during class. This tool can help students who struggle to find new books that they want to read.
This tool can be used once a month or every Friday, or the chosen day of the week, as I used it. This tool is great to use when you have students who are struggling to get interested in reading or books as the teacher will read the first chapter of a new book each Friday to preview the book. This would spark interest in the book that may not have been there previously. First Chapter Friday is also a good way to bond with older grades as they do not get read to ask often as when they were younger allows for them to bond with the teacher more so and relax during the reading. When I have used this in my placement the students have loved the books read and have started to read a wider range of books and series because of the First Chapter Friday.
I believe that this tool fits in the supportive phase, however, an argument can be made for the preventive phase as well. This tool is used to reinforce students' interest in books which need to be continued over a period of time. Not all students will be interested in the same types of books but they need to be reading. At my placement students are required to read at least six books throughout the whole year and we need to help provide a way for students to accomplish this if they don't like books. However, for this exact reason, this tool could also be a part of the preventative phase but I felt like it fit more so in the supportive phase. This tool best fits in the Collaborative theory as this tool comes from the teacher reading the book and the students listening and enjoying the book. This tool could lead to either side of Collaborative but it takes both sides working together to make it work.
More Information –
Tool Source: T. Bilesky
