This cross-curricular learning experience was developed at Hanover Street School by Gill Graham and her Primary Six class. Support was given by The Reading Bus Team.
A detailed planning sheet can be found here: BookCrossing Planner.
Listen to the podcast by Hanover Street School to find out all about their exciting book launch here:
Youngsters' Forum > Hanover Street PodCast - November 27th 2008.
BookCrossing is a global scheme which co-ordinates the sharing of books between people using a central website. The website allows users to share their thoughts on books, release books to be found and recommend books. In many ways it is like a giant virtual book group. For more information see www.bookcrossing.com
Each user registers a book on the website and receives an individual BCID (BookCrossing Identity Number). This is then placed inside the cover of the book, so people can register the book on the website when they find it, and the book is “released”. Finders can also leave comments about the book and give it a rating.
There are two types of release a Wild Release and a Controlled Release. A Wild Release involves leaving the book anywhere from a park bench to an airport lounge. A Controlled Release is where a book is sent to a specific person who can then pass the book on. It does not matter which release is used and they can be interchanged every time the book is released. (BookCrossing instruction sheet)
A Primary 6 class at Hanover Street Primary School were asked to use the BookCrossing scheme to send Fit Like, Yer Majesty? around the world. The class organised a “pilot plant” in Aberdeen before organising a high profile launch to release 50 copies of the book.
A BookCrossing pack for schools is available from their website free of charge (www.bookcrossing.com/schools). This package arrived at Hanover Street and the children were asked to guess what might be in the box. This opened up opportunities to develop listening and talking skills, short writing activities and of course the children’s imaginations!
The box contained an inflatable globe, a BookCrossing bookmark and a BookCrossing Zone sticker and a letter from the Reading Bus Crew explaining the challenge. The children were then sent away to research what BookCrossing actually was and report back to the class.
Using atlases and world maps the children were encouraged to find weird and wonderful places to send the books. This allowed them to become aware of different countries and places and extend their understanding of the world map.
All the writing activities centred around preparing the books for launch. Such examples included posters and flyers to advertise the idea and the launch, blurbs about the project explaining what people needed to do if they found the book, post-its to show the book was free, e-mails to people after they had agreed to release the books and blogging on the BookCrossing website. (Hanover Street Examples of Writing)
The children were asked to suggest their first choice of a launch place in Aberdeen and to explain why their choice was a suitable place. The class made a top ten list and voted on the best ideas using a secret ballot. This led to discussions about the importance of secret voting and the connection to peer pressure and how a voting system works.
The children then recorded the results of the vote by creating a tally chart and then from this a bar chart.
The winning destination from the class was His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen. This was suggested by several children but one said, “It has Majesty in the name and so does the book!”
The class phoned His Majesty’s Theatre to ask if they might plant the first copy in a seat in the dress circle. The class were then all invited to visit the Theatre and were given a guided tour before planting their first copy.
Read the press coverage here: Pupils plan to send Doric out to wider world: Press & Journal (26/09/2008)
The children worked with Kittybrewster Primary Six to organise a Fly Cup Launch to distribute the 50 books. Representatives from two classes met in the board room of NorthSound to plan their event. Their tasks included:
The launch was a huge success with over 50 guests attending. Guests included Maureen Watt, MSP for Schools and Skills, Lewis MacDonald, MSP, business partners, professional colleagues, community partners and friends.
It has to be manageable! Each child has control of 2 books and records the journey of their books using pins and elastic bands in the large world map. The class log on to the site twice a week to follow the books. E-mails are regularly checked and give information about when a book has been caught.
A variety of assessment methods have been used throughout the project. These have included Learning Logs, Stars and Thinks, decision making based on previous experiences, photos and videos.
This has positively encouraged and developed my children’s attitude towards language. The project has encompassed so many rich learning experiences. However, I would perhaps encompass the use of an interactive map to reinforce computer skills further, although the children love the real map.
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