10 Ways to Promote Books

I have a confession. I am awful at promoting books 😔. I have really strong beliefs about reading and literacy. It was one of the reasons why I became a Library Media Specialist. I just spend a great deal of time teaching multiple literacies. I teach research skills, digital citizenship, coding and computer science, engineering and design.

Some of my colleagues solely teach library skills because they have a computer science teacher. I don’t, so I do it all. Honestly, I don’t know if I would enjoy my job as much if I taught only library or only computer science. Like many of you, I am a jack of all trades and try really hard to juggle all of that content and promote reading once a week.

I have gotten a little creative with how I get books into the hands of my students and promote a love for reading. Here are my favorites:

1. Read Alouds: Tried but true! I don’t always have time for this, but when I do, the books go flying off the shelf!
2. Storytime Sites: I play Storytime with Ryan and Craig, Storytime Online, and Storytime from Space after students checkout books. These titles also fly off the shelf.
3. Book Tastings: Place a pile of books relevant to that grade on each table. They read the cover and a few pages, and then record their thinking about the book. I have used this to introduce students to new genres they may not have previously considered, and to teach them how they library is organized.
4. Book Scoots: These are similar to book tastings. The main difference is that there is one book at each seat. They browse the book in about a 1-2 minutes and then scoot to the next seat with a book when the signal is given. This a great option for students who need to move and need boundaries when moving.
5. Book Boogie: Similar to a tasting and scoot. There is one book at each seat. Students dance around the room while music plays. When the music stops, they safely find a seat with a book and browse it. Repeat as many times as you like. This is a great option for students who need to move and can do it with control. Modeling is HUGE!
6. What I’m Reading: I post what I’m reading on each entrance. I use What I’m Reading. I have also done something similar to this blog post. I have really great intentions of having students create their own and ‘litter’ the school with them. (Let students do the work for us!)
7. Read, Review & Record: Do you have state awards? Ours is Nutmeg Nominee. My fellow CRECie, Amy Bansak, and I are reading previous years’ nominees and helping our students draft an opinion of them. They will turn these drafts into video reviews on Flipgrid or Seesaw. The previous year’s nominees are practice for the reviews they will do for this year’s nominees. Our hope: they will create the reviews and inspire each other to read more Nutmegs!
8. Augmented Reads: My colleague in Canada, Linda Edwards, and I had our students do Bubble Books. They used the app 3DBear to augment a part of their book and then shared them in our Besties Group in GoBubble. They had loads of fun!
9. Novel Effect: If you haven’t downloaded and started using Novel Effect, do it right now! It will breathe great life into your Read Alouds. I cannot keep the books that I read with Novel Effect on the shelf for weeks! If you can download it on student devices, this is also a super fun way for students to practice reading fluency that also supports the ISTE Standards for Students Empowered Learner!
10. You’ve Been Book’d: Have you seen this great idea? I started to book staff right after Veteran’s Day. I love how the kids and staff are really enjoying the books. AND the younger ones have been using the clues of the Book’d bags to figure out who has been leaving them.

You may have noticed that overwhelmingly, the ways that I promote books vastly relies on others to do the promoting! Even if I am doing a tasting, scoot, or boogie; I enlist students to pull books that others may be interested in. I may explain what we are doing and why we are doing it, but the children are exploring, talking about, and doing the heavy lifting of book promotion.

I use these bookmarks with my students so they can track the books they are interested in.