Book Tasting

To save students from “reading ruts”, the first book tasting was developed for students to "taste" something new.  Instead of feasting on pizza, students were feasting on nonfiction, historical fiction, realistic fiction, mysteries, science fiction, poetry and folklore.

How do you “taste” a book? Students received a "menu" for logging their experiences and observations. They wrote down the title and genre and what they thought of the cover, and then recorded their thoughts after 5 minutes of reading.

Like a progressive dinner, students moved from one table to another after a certain amount of time so they could sample the next course or, in this case, genre. Choosing unfamiliar books from the pile, they settled into their chairs and began reading. They wrote whether they would want to read the entire book in the menu in order to refer to it later when checking out a library book.

All of the books at the tasting are available in the school library.