#Hashtag Book Awards

Who wants to INCREASE engagement in BOOK TALKS?!



I love talking about books and take a status of the class daily on my checklist - just quickly jotting down the page number the student read to (goodbye reading logs!!) and we discuss brief events and summaries if they are finished so they can share with the class.

I do this periodically throughout the day as well when I get a few moments or during silent reading time using Reading Conference questions to guide my questioning along with some comprehension and their plan for reading next as well.

Book talks no matter the form are essential to get students EXCITED about reading! I love that they can be applied to any level and therefore any grade!!!





I threw in a new element recently of #Hashtag Book Awards!  My students were just introduced to my students during review for another subject but they love them so I thought why not add them to our book talks!


These can work in a variety of ways but I'll tell you what has worked for me and what you might want to do in your classroom!

You can use awards for the whole year and keep a checklist that students nominate! Easy but must be managed.  I use this as part of a reading station in my room.


You can use awards monthly - introduce the hashtag and have students nominate their books (using the nomination form - to get in some writing and prove why their book deserves to win) then as a class vote at the end of the month.  I think this gives students enough time to read the books that are being buzzed about and time to get enough in throughout the year.  This is what works best for my class this year.  We focus on one genre at a time as well so this can help us focus on that more indepth.  I love reading their reasoning behind their selections.  Always do the COVETED #lovethatbook award anyway at the end for the favorite book of the class.


You could also have this be done after every book a student reads - what hashtag would you give it and why.  I already find students hashtag during their notes they take on books to help remember :)


The pack comes with a blank template, nomination and voting forms or just use this as a jumping off point for discussion.  Just plug in the book title, draw a cover or print a picture and go.



These are easy on colored ink but can be done in b/w or 1/2 sheets to save color and space!

I love having the #lovethatbook award for years to come kind of like a wall of fame - seeing how it changes throughout the years!  I make the rule that students can't vote unless they read the book as well.  You could vote on your best read aloud from the year to make it more fair.




The absolute best benefit would be the BUZZ it creates in our room!  Deciding which hashtag and thinking about some of those elements we normally wouldn't make it fun for students.  This could also replace the traditional end of year awards to a more reading focused ceremony and great reading closure for a class.

What is your best book talk tip?

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QR Science Fair with FREEbie

Raise your hand if you love to incorporate technology!  I try - we only have 10 iPads to share with the WHOLE school so it can be tough. I actually planned this projects far enough in advance to get them 1 hour a whole week!  This was a highlight of my 5th grade science class - a QR science fair.

We use these planning sheets - you can grab them here. This includes a rubric.  We did a certain amount of required work at home and then filmed the experiments after we wrote scripts and I initialed their scientific method sheets.

They used  iMovie to create movies or trailers including all parts of scientific method and then air dropped the movies to me.  I uploaded to Youtube where you only can use link to view and we specifically did not use names in our films and only coded titles even if they could be found for safety.

Each student went home with a sheet similar to the one below so they could view everyone's project and  we had a day in class to watch and show younger students who would get a chance to do it next year. This was such a hit! They could be easily viewed at home - they got to be creative with the editing and learned a lot about iMovie - they got to send me work elecronically (rural teacher win!) - parents could see quality of work as well.



This really got them involved in the scientific method before testing when it is really needed as well.  We talk and do experiments all year but this really helped them see it for themselves.!

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Poetry Analysis


HAVE YOU EVER....needed something and wished you had it right on hand?!

This resource is for you!  I'm telling you- I looked at the CCSS exemplar texts for poetry and knew I needed to kick my butt into gear to get my kids ready for some rigorous poetry but still have a meaningful experience!


I set out research public domain poems that would be great and challenging for my students.  This resource saved my poetry teaching.  The ones with our reading series (if any!) are small and not given much attention!!!   This was a huge wake up call.

I chose to study this in December not April (National Poetry Month) because we need to get in the vocabulary surrounding poems and practicing the skills used to analyze much longer before state testing.  I LOVE fun rhyming poetry but obviously that was not going to get my students to where they needed to be - much to my dismay :( 


This labor of love is packed with so many truly great poems by classic authors - just ready for students!  Check out the many uses below.



Comparing 2 William Blake poems (hello CCSS.RL.9 - SO TRICKY!!) There are more comparisons included as well!

For the few poems I couldn't include the text there are QR codes (and just web links!) to reach these poems! This made CENTERS a breeze for poetry month!! The questions are tricky but I let them work with pairs at centers for plenty of practice as a class, in pairs, and independently as well.






 Here we are comparing "The Eagle" by Tennyson and "How Doth the Little Crocodile" by Lewis Carroll.  This was one we worked on as a class so they understand the vocabulary in the question and what it was asking.  We brainstormed ideas together and they wrote the paragraph answer in their notebooks which I went around and checked as their exit slip while they moved onto reading rotations (spelling choices, grammar, literacy skill)
Click any of the pictures to get more info!  This is truly something that saved my poetry unit and really vamped up the rigor! Check it out if yours could use some updating too!

The sheets work great for CENTERS, homework, independent class work, assessments, and I included answer keys for all sheets along with small copies for interactive notebooks!


Below is another sample page of the type of questions and poem selection. We spent about 3 weeks in December on poetry studying and analyzing while creating some of our own.






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