During Reading - Janine Leone

1. BOOKPASS STRATEGY
by: Janine Leone

2. WHAT IS A BOOKPASS?
• Bookpass is a strategy that allows students
to look through many different kinds of
texts in a short amount of time. This
activity can be used as a pre-reading
strategy before a new unit, as an activity
designed to activate student’s prior
knowledge, or to select research texts for a
project. In this activity students briefly
examine books that come from many
different genres, including poetry, research
texts, novels, etc. All texts are based on a
certain concept or theme or are chosen for
a specific purpose, such as new, high-
interest titles, or books that belong to a
specific genre.

3. WHY USE A BOOKPASS?
• Book pass is an effective way to view several
different texts all addressing a common focus.
Students can examine several titles all related
to an event, theme, or time period. A bookpass
can be used as a pre-reading strategy before a
new unit, as an activity designed to activate
student’s prior knowledge, or to select
research texts for a project.
• A bookpass can also be used as an opportunity
for students to familiarize themselves with
books in their class library in order to choose
independent reading books that match their
levels and interests..

4. HOW DOES IT WORK
Book Passes can be done in small groups or with the
entire class
DIRECTIONS…
Give each student a book and a Book Pass Log. On the
student’s log, the child should note the title and author
of the book and then "sample" the book. Students
might look at the first pages or skip through the book,
examining illustrations, chapter titles, or graphics.
Depending on the purpose of the bookpass students
highlight something they have learned about the topic,
a question related to the theme or topic that arose from
looking at this book, or what they did or did not like
about the book.

6. AFTER 2-4 MINUTES…
The teacher will say...."Book Pass."
Students then pass along their
books to the person sitting next to
them and repeat the process with a
new book for 2-4 minutes...

7. AFTER COMPLETING THE BOOKPASS..
During the bookpass students chart their comments/questions. After
the bookpass is complete, they can choose which book they would
like to use for their assignment, read, or share the
comments/questions as background knowledge/inquiry for the new
unit you are about to begin.