Book Waterfalls

I am so thankful to have come upon Erica Beaton's blog, B10 Loves Books.  You can find it here
http://b10lovesbooks.wordpress.com/2012/12/10/tips-for-getting-kids-to-do-more-choice-reading-book-waterfall/

She suggests using Book Waterfalls to increase book love, and to also hold students accountable for what they are reading. Students will also informally notice each other's books, and can hold each other accountable if someone has been reading a book for weeks and weeks!

Here's what we did:

After independent reading, students brought their books into a circle.

 

We each took turns showing the cover of the book we read.  Today we said one sentence about what we thought the genre of the book might be, since we are studying different genres this week.

In the end, each student was held accountable for a text.  I could quickly tell if the student had a solid understanding of genre.  And also, each student was introduced to many different titles in a short amount of time!

Informal assessment at its best!

And finally:
Our favorite class picture so far.