West Liberty-Salem Local School District

Lights were low, music was groovy and the books were hot at the 4th grade Language Arts ‘Book Tasting Cafe’. Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. Kale, language arts teachers, set the mood Friday morning with a real coffee house feel, while students “tasted” five different genres of literature.  They sampled books by reading the book jacket or a few pages, and if they liked it they, recorded the title to remember later.  This was a fun way to help students understand the concept of successfully finding ‘good-fit books’. Good-fit books are books that students understand yet provide a little challenge, are interesting for individual taste, and are appropriate length for their reading level.  Finding good fit books encourages students to enjoy literature. This year fourth graders use Renaissance Accelerated Reader to create a reading goal and begin to really develop their comprehension through short quizzes based on their book selections.  They really enjoyed their time at the ‘café’ and were excited to read some of the books they discovered.