How to Set up Speed Dating with a Book

Speed Dating with Books

Speed Dating with Books is one of my favorite activities! I did this in elementary school as well, but we called it Book Tasting. Whichever you want to call it, it is simple to set up. 

Gather the books 

I sort my tables by genre, so I start pulling about 10 - 15 books from each genre. I start by putting them on a cart. I try to gather popular titles, but also less loved books in hopes that they find a reader. 

Make table signs

If you are going to divide the tables by genre, you can make genre signs for the table. Mine are simple and just have the genre listed along with a clip art image. You can use my images, or use them as an idea to create your own. I suggest using Canvas to make the signs. 

Set up the Tables 

You can make this part as simple or extravagant as you'd like. Some people have menus for the students to fill out as they visit the tables and put placemats down. I do things simple and quick. I buy the cheap table cloths at Wal-Mart or Dollar Tree. We always do this activity in February so the theme is Valentines and Romance. I purchased some inexpensive decorations and put them in the middle of the tables.  

Next, the table signs are placed on the tables. And then I put the books in a circle around the table centerpiece. 

Most importantly, I put together a playlist songs for the event. I like to play Oldie Love Songs. The favorites from teachers and students have been:

•  Can't Take my Eyes off You by Frankie Valli 
• God Only Knows by The Beach Boys 
• Be My Baby by The Ronettes 
• My Girl by The Temptations 
• One Fine Day by The Chiffons 
• Earth Angel by The Penguins 
• These Arms of Mine by Otis Redding 
• Close to You by The Carpenters
• And I Love Her by The Beatles
• Sugar, Sugar by The Archies 
• Happy Together by The Turtles
• Don't Worry Baby by The Beach Boys 

Amazon has an already put together playlist of Oldies Love Songs if you have Amazon Music.

The Big Event

The students always get so excited when they enter the library and see the tables all decorated. I have them choose a table, limiting how many people can be at each table. I have these instructions on the big screen. 

• Choose a table. 
• When time starts, look through the books, but not reading yet. Be sure to not leave out any books at the table. 
• You will have about 3 - 4 mintues. Pick up a book that looks interesting. Read the summary on the book jacket or back. Read the first page. You have a short amount of time to get to know your book. 
• If you like your book "date", keep it with you. You are still going to explore the books at other tables. 
• If you decide later during the activity that you don't want that book "date", place it back on the table where you found it. 
• When the music stops, switch tables, and REPEAT!  

Even the teachers participate in the Book Speed Dating and usually find a book to check out. 

Benefits

No matter if you call this Book Tasting or Speed Dating with a book, or how much or little you decorate the tables, there are huge benefits. 

• You can do this activity with all grade levels, from elementary to high school. 
• Students are exposed to different genres that they may not typically read. 
• It is a great way to get books that don't get much love, but that you know are amazing, checked out and read. 
• Students are engaged and get exciting about reading!! 

Do you have any tips for conducting book tastings or speed dating with books in libraries? I would love to hear from you! 

 

January Recap

 

I know it is the 2nd week of February, but I'm still playing catch up on the ice storm and days off we had last week. I was at the TCEA conference, and was planning to come home on Wednesday, but the weather had different plans for me. I was not able to come home until Thursday afternoon, and school was cancelled due to ice on Friday. School was closed for 4 days! In Texas we don't get ice very often, but when we do it is dangerous ice. 

Favorite book of 2022

Let's go back to the beginning of January. I love to assess my year in books for the previous year the first week of January. In 2022 I read 66 books, and had set a goal of 60. I went over my goal this year. I do not count the picture books I read, only chapter and professional books. 

My favorite middle grade/YA book from 2022 was THE LAST CUENTISTA by Donna Barba Higuera. This book also won the Newbery Award for 2022. It is a dystopian / Science Fiction book, and is absolutely beautiful! A must purchase for the school library collection. 

Professional Development Days 

I love professional development days! It gives me a day before the students come back to process my thoughts. But the best thing about PD is that I'm with my people! All the district librarians were together for this day, so I even got to see my former elementary peeps. It was a great day of learning - we looked at STAAR 2.0 questions and how we can support the teachers in the library with the new test format. Then the afternoon, we did a quick book study of HACKING SCHOOL LIBRARIES by Kristina Holzweiss and Stony Evans. It is a must read for new and seasoned school librarians. 

Fun in the Library

This month was short due to trainings I had to attend and the library being closed for CBE testing. However, I was still able to see most of the English classes, plus schedule "Book Blasts" for the reading classes. 

8th grade has started a unit over persuasive writing, so I showed that all the amazing things in our Gale Opposing Viewpoints database. We discussed how to build a better argument by looking at both sides of an issue. Then we explored some of the issues in the database. 

6th grade had a BLAST coding with our favorite robot, Ozobot. I found an Ozobot activity that ties in with Lunar New Year. We first talked about the holiday, then I told them about the tradition in China where the adults give the children red envelopes with coins. So, their challenge was to code Ozobot to go around the path to collect the red envelopes from the family members. It was so much fun watching the different ways the students coded the robots. 

January Statistics 

I was surprised at my statistics this month, being closed 3 days for testing, and gone for training a few days. The library was open when I was gone for training, but not as many students come in if they know I'm gone. 

Even so, we had 1,314 books circulated through our library. My student aides were super busy this month shelving. Plus we are trying to keep up with the dynamic shelving. It definitely increases circulation, but you are almost constantly replacing the books on display. 

My goal is to advertise eBooks more often - they don't get checked out as often as I'd like. 

How was your January?

Building Arguments with 8th Grade

 8th grade will be starting the Persuasive writing unit soon, so the teachers approached me about reviewing the databases the students will be using. I decided to use Gale Opposing Viewpoints to practice building an argument. 

First, we did a quick review over how to use the database, what was included, and how they can find and cite their information. 

To model looking at both sides of an issue to build their argument, we looked up the issue Fast Fashion. I asked the question why we need to look at both sides in order to build an effective argument. It took every class a little bit to get to the reason, but we did get there. I needed the students to understand that when we are writing a persuasive article, we are not trying to persuade peope that already think the same way we do, we are persuading people that think differently. If we look at their side of the issue and the reasons they think the way they do, we can build better arguments. 

Group work 

The next step after modeling is to get in groups to look up their issue. For time sake, since I only have the classes for 45 minutes, I assigned each group a topic in Opposing Viewpoints. I also assigned them a slide number so they knew which slide to work on. 

Students recieved an editable version of the google slide. *I made a copy of this for each class coming to the library.* On their slide, they write the two sides of the issue giving the two strongest arguments for each. Then, after reading both sides of the issue, students write their opinion stating reasons and support from the articles. 

Conversations 

This activity sparked some really good conversations about hearing both sides. Several of the students mentioned that they had never thought of certain issues in this way after reading the opposite side of what they believed. 

Feel free to grab the template to do this activity with your students.