"Don't Judge a Book By Its Movie." WHATEVER! I think the phrase can be dissected in so many ways... "the book is SO MUCH better than the movie"... "just because you watched the movie, doesn't mean you shouldn't read the book"... "the movie was NOTHING like the book"... or sometimes "Wow, the movie was BETTER than the book!" (don't tell me no one ever says that because I've even said that!).
So, what is really meant by this phrase? All of the above and none of the above. To me, it's a joke. Don't let what I just said ruffle your feathers too much.
The plus side: Movies sell books. I worked at Borders too long not to see this trend. Books fly off the shelves and not just the movie versions. At school, my kids will check out the books that are based on movies they've seen or will see. In fact, it's becoming more and more common to create book trailers to give a teaser for the book. It's fun to see the hype generated for a book because it gets people reading!
Yes, there is a negative side to this argument, but why kill a reading buzz?
Image courtesy of Salvatore Vuono/freedigitalphotos.net
Determined to teach my students skills they would need to succeed in the world, I don't feel as if I pushed books and reading as much as I could have this past school year (even my blog reflected this). Don't get me wrong, my students still had these values promoted to them with checking out books, learning to use a Nook, book fairs, and our annual Read Across America day. I just want this coming school year to be different. I realized that at the end of this school year when I gave students two chances at independent reading during their centers time for the last month of school and they really enjoyed themselves. My 2nd graders even got two book parties, one celebrating Mo Willems Elephant and Piggie the other Eric Litwin's Pete the Cat.
This coming school year, I'm embracing my inner book geek (or bookseller) again. I've decided to keep up with promoting books and reading with a few book parties for every grade level during their library time. I also want to focus on author studies/spotlights...hoping most of them can be in correlation with the books being celebrated. I've decided to try out two capstone projects for each grade level, one of which will be a reading/book-based project and the other being a library/technology skill.
The classroom management system I plan on implementing will encourage reading and not just positive behavior. Extra books to checkout, read the whole time during library, get the cool reading spot in the library, or reading online via one of the many virtual book websites I have bookmarked for students. Even returning library books on time will let students reap benefits.
If you're interested in finding out more about my plans, just holler (comment).
