Created by Lea Bailey, Ph.D. from Irving ISD for the TLA Program Speed Geeking, April 2010

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How Can Shelfari Promote Reading, Libraries, or Books?

This handout is for the Shelfari section of the TLA 2010 Program Speed Geeking. There are 3 sections: 1) what do with Shelfari, 2) how a high school uses it on their webpage, and 3) how a middle school uses it for a book study. For basics on how to obtain an account and the basic functionality of such, please go to http://www.shelfari.com/ If you have any questions about the information in this handout, please feel free to contact me at lbailey@irvingisd.net My Shelfari name is Lea B.

What to Do With Shelfari?

1. Keep track of the books you’ve read. 2. Set up a shelf for a first grader or new reader to show them all the books they’ve

read during a school year. 3. Set up a shelf to keep track of the books read aloud to a class. 4. Set up a shelf with the recommended AP books for outside reading or college

bound list. 5. Talk about books with a group/class online. See section “Shelfari in a Middle

School Setting” section of this handout. 6. Write short reviews of books you’ve read. 7. Have students write summaries or reviews of the books they’ve read. 8. Rate the books you’ve read. 9. Add tags to books to use in sorting or finding additional titles to read. 10. Sort your list by genre, subject, setting, etc. depending on the tags. 11. Use the genre sorted bookshelf as a prop in a booktalk. 12. Find suggestions of books to read through others’ recommendations, tags,

subjects you like, etc. 13. Recommend a book via email to “friends” on Shelfari 14. See what’s popular among readers on Shelfari. 15. See what your “friends” are reading by looking on their shelves. 16. Send private messages to friends. 17. Put your bookshelf on your blog or website. 18. Open a school library Shelfari account and post the most popular books in your

library. Then add that Shelfari account to your web page or blog following Shelfari’s instructions on their website. See example on next page that MacArthur High School has posted.

Created by Lea Bailey, Ph.D. from Irving ISD for the TLA Program Speed Geeking, April 2010

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MacArthur High School in Irving ISD http://www.irvingisd.net/maclibrary/ has a link on main library page for Students. The link goes to a Shelfari account that shows the top 50 books being circulated this year. Update that list periodically based on the data. Might set up one account for top nonfiction, another for top graphic novels, top fiction, etc.

Created by Lea Bailey, Ph.D. from Irving ISD for the TLA Program Speed Geeking, April 2010

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Shelfari in a Middle School Setting Here’s an example of how one middle school teacher (Salinas) has used a Shelfari Group for her AP students (note: I’m a member of this group with the teacher’s permission)—

Moderator (teacher) posts a question:

Created by Lea Bailey, Ph.D. from Irving ISD for the TLA Program Speed Geeking, April 2010

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Students respond. Notice that there are no actual photographs of the students or “real names” to protect their privacy. “Fake” emails can also be used—make up an address in email style. (With this method you can not use password retrieval method. The teacher kept a list of student’s passwords..)

Created by Lea Bailey, Ph.D. from Irving ISD for the TLA Program Speed Geeking, April 2010

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Teacher can post a reply to the participant. Group does see it.

Responses can even be used as a form of assessment. All the students responded at the same time in a lab setting in this case.