• evaluate and discuss the teacher’s door decoration.
• listen to a book read aloud by the teacher.
• write in their journals about their own literary favorites.
• plan and create a display about literature, genres or authors.
• assess their work and the work of others.

• Teacher-decorated classroom door
• Writing journals
• Classroom library selection
• Comic Creator
• Multigenre Mapper
• Examples of door decorations
• Posterboard, paper, markers, other art materials
• List of Display Requirements
• Rubric or class-created assessment criteria

• Select a favorite novel, picture book, genre, or author to introduce yourself to the class. Alternately, the choice can relate to books, genres, or authors that will be studied that year. The text that you choose will be the focus of the classroom door decoration and class discussion.
• Choose a scene from the book, parts of the cover, representative symbols from a genre, or notable titles/covers from an author, and decorate the entrance door of the classroom with the selection.
• Depending upon your goals, you can includ the name of book, author/illustrator, or genre on the door.
• Assemble posterboard, paper, and art materials.
• Make appropriate number of copies of requirements list and rubric.
• Test the Comic Creator and the Multigenre Mapper on your computers to familiarize yourself with the tools and ensure that you have the Flash plug-in installed. You can download the plug-in from the technical support page.
• View the examples of decorated classroom doors.

1. When the students enter the room, take care of first-day school tasks and routines.
2. At the appropriate time, invite the students to examine and explore environmental print in the classroom.
3. Ideally, they will take notice of the decorated classroom door. If not, ask them more directly about print on the door.
4. Shift the discussion to an exploration of the door by asking students to share their impressions or observations of the door.
5. After the students have contributed, “walk and talk” the students through the decorations on the door.
6. Invite students to contribute details they know about the focus of the door.
7. Tell students about the book, genre, or author highlighted on the door.
8. Invite students to ask any questions they have.
9. When the discussion is complete, share actual text with the students—the favorite book, selected books from a genre, or chosen books by an author.
10. Work on any extension activities based upon the shared book, genre, or author.

1. In their journals, invite students to write about their favorite book, genre or author. Their writing can be open-ended, or you can supply students with prompts to write about.
2. Once the students have finished writing about their favorite book, genre, or author, invite the students to “pair and share”—to choose a partner and share their favorites with each other.
3. When students have had an opportunity to share, explain that the class will make displays of their favorite to share with the entire class.
4. Explain the decorating option that you have chosen:
   
   
   • Students can work together in pairs or small groups and take turns decorating the door.
   • Students can use posterboard to make a display for the walls of the classroom.
   • Students can use the Comic Creator to recreate scenes from their favorite books or illustrate something about a particular author.
   • Students can use the Multigenre Mapper to draw and write about their literature or genre.
   • Students can use the Book Cover Creator to create covers or dust jackets for their favorite books.
     
     
5. To provide students with further examples of door decorations, show examples using a computer and projector.
6. Hold a class discussion, critiquing what the students have seen. Allow time for students to comment on what would make a good display and what would be distracting. List students’ observations on the board or chart paper.
7. From this class conversation, the students could create their own rubric or assessment piece for the project, or distribute copies of the rubric and discuss how it relates to the class discussion.
8. Determine what should be required on the displays by brainstorming elements and recording them on the board or chart paper. Alternately, share and discuss the List of Display Requirements.
9. Allow some time for the students to brainstorm some ideas of their own for their display.

1. Review the rubric or class-created assessment criteria and the list of display requirements, so students know what the targets are for the project.
2. Explain who will assess the project—the teacher, students through self-assessment, or peers.
3. Before students begin designing their displays, they need to plan what they will look like.
   
   
• If they are decorating the classroom door or creating a poster, use a piece of white paper to plan.
• If using the Comic Creator, use the Comic Planning Sheet to plan background, characters and props.
• If using the Multigenre Mapper, share the Multigenre Layout with the students.
  
  
4. When the students have completed the planning process, provide time for them to work on their displays.
5. Monitor students as they work, and assist as needed.

1. When the students have completed their displays, invite them to share them with the class.
2. Assess the students using the rubric or class-created assessment piece as they present their displays. If you're using peer assessment, arrange for students to provide feedback on one another’s work.
3. After all of the students have shared, they can assess their own work using the rubric or using the class-created assessment piece.
4. Display the students’ projects in the classroom, hallway, or on the classroom door.

• Invite students to write about their display by responding to the following questions: Why did you choose what you did? What did you include? What did you leave out?
  
  
• Select award-winning texts and authors as a class, and create displays about those topics.
  
  
• Extend this project to a schoolwide activity. Have each classroom and instructional area choose a book, genre, or author to highlight.
  
  
• Celebrate an important teacher, librarian, or library media specialist by having each classroom choose literature or authors meaningful to the chosen person.
  

Classroom Door Decorations
http://interactives.mped.org/mmg662.aspx

For example door decorations, share this slide show.

Children’s Book Awards
http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/awards.html

For additional information on books that students choose, visit this site on national and international children’s book awards.

NCTE/IRA Standards

3 - Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).

4 - Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.

5 - Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.

6 - Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and nonprint texts.

11 - Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.

12 - Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).