As you might have noticed, I've been much into reading these days...alongside my eldest kid, we've been ordering books and reading for hours and hours. That's what holidays are for, right? To do whatever pleases you; what you can't usually do or spend much time doing during the schoolyear.
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| The official BookCrossing logo |
Though I usually don't get rid of my books (but am keen on lending them), I've become more and more interested in BookCrossing, "the practice of leaving a book in a public place to be picked up and read by others, who then do likewise." (in Wikipedia). In a different scale, it works somehow as a classroom library just like many have already experienced, mostly in our mother tongue.
Then, why not do the same in our EFL classes? And I don't mean just one class, the more classes involved, the better! I know you might ask where to get enough / varied stories for different grades. Well, I've already bought many myself but why not ask the learners themselves to bring in some money so that you may choose some graded readers? I also know we are in a crisis and in suburban areas to ask parents for some extra money can be painful... Another possibility is still the school library: why not approaching the school librarian and asking him/her if there is enough budget for your choice of books? It's not hard to try and... who knows?
Anyway, right now I'm reading Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert following a suggestion by a very dear and old friend of mine - and, yes, a blogger as well (click here). As usual, these "teacher's eyes" (don't you also believe teachers see and appreciate things differently???) are wide open and I'll post here a few lines on it as soon as I've finished. There is still another reason for my choice... it was not at random that I ordered the aforementioned American bestseller: 30th September is the release date for the film adaptation of Elizabeth Gilbert's memoirs starring Julia Roberts as Gilbert and Javier Bardem as Felipe - and these two alone are already reason enough to be willing to see it, don't you agree? ;) Well, school isn't too far for many of us now and it's time to start outlining new activities - maybe based on this book and / or film... these teacher's eyes are and will be open (I hope for a long time). I'll leave you now with the trailer:
3 comments:
Great idea! I have been a bookcrosser since 2005 and have released many books. Great to share, read comments about other books or even to get rid of those you don't like.
Dear Alex,
as always, coming up with brilliant ideas. You know from time to time I have a look at your blog and I always find something new, different and fantastic! Many thanks.
Cristina (Spain)
Thanks for dropping past my blog and for your encouraging words :)
I'll surely try, Uidi@, at least to get rid of those books I don't like :)))
As I said in my blogpost, Cristina@, I do like reading but time is scarce. Why not make use of our precious time, read and motivate others in order to build a community of (young) readers?
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