world book day

I think this looks like a fun activity for kids to participate in! Unfortunately, many events like this turn into a competition amongst the parents and the kids miss out on what the main message is. However, I would think that it would beneficial to continue even if a handful of students enjoyed it, or more importantly made lasting impact on them. If a few students can learn to appreciate reading or find the joy in a book, then I don't think its all for nothing. It's planting a seed in the child that will hopefully continue to develop into adulthood. This makes me think of science fairs... I do know that parents at my middle school did all of the work and so science projects are no more. Hopefully this won't happen to the world book day!

I love world book day! I think it could be a lot of fun in the classroom. Students could bring in their favorite book and talk about it through a book talk. I tend to associate world book day with banned books week. I think it's just as important to highlight the banning of books and what that means for public school students.
There is a poem all about banned books week that I absolutely love. Find it here: www.huffingtonpost.com/john-lundberg/a-poem-highlights-banned_b_300302.html. I would use this in my classroom, first because it's a really great poem and second because it has such a powerful message.

Hannah, I am really happy you brought this up because all the English nerds really appreciate world book day! I think, like Alicen said, it can be associated with banned books week which is so important for us to be discussing with our students because they are already limited in the reading they are "allowed" to be exposed to and they have so little time to read outside of class anyway. I think world book day is a way for students to be exposed to all kinds of books and to realize that their teachers read too. This modeling of teacher readers is so important to how students view reading and it can really encourage them to pursue a book. As for the costumes and parents being crazy, I think that in almost any instance parents like to get crazy and so as a teacher you have to be aware of how a parent will react to an assignment just as much as how the student will. I like the idea that they changed it to a hat because I think that is much more productive to what teachers are trying to encourage!

Good point! I think you also make an important point that they will get into the classroom. Then the teacher has a lot of input into the learning environment created and will hopefully focus on the important parts!

Thinking about the banned books topic - could this/is this extended to banned media in general? Movies, songs, plays etc. Or even a discussion of should programs be allowed on TV at all times or should movies have age ratings? I wonder if this might tap into what students know to complement the discussion of banned books.

One of the things we did in grade schools was called R.I.F.: Reading Is Fun! Toby's Clown School came in an talked to us once a semester in the cafeteria about how awesome it is to read. Then on the lunch tables were dozens of books and we usually got to pick two of them to take home and read. We'd get like two minutes to run and search the tables for a title or cover to pull us in. You had to move fast or all the "good books" would be gone. It made getting to have a book a lot of fun and interactive. It was kind of like a blind date, but you chose it for a specific reason. I still have a bunch of mine.

I love this idea of a blind date book type of thing. The students would really get a chance to sit down with another peer (which they usually enjoy doing during class time) and really get to know each other's books! Not only is that adorable, but it gives the students an opportunity to sit down and learn about those different genres and story plots. I have done something similar to think before in school and I was not a huge fan of fiction novels until a student opened up my eyes to how awesome they can be. It's great that students can influence one another to read!