This past year, the
American Association of School Librarians released the 2013 list of BestWebsites for Teaching and Learning.
Among the list is a website that encourages students to read and write
through a unique online book review program which offers free, newly released books
for students to review....
Recently, one of
LitPick’s founders visited with us via Skype and explained the program to our creative writing class and their teacher Renee Martin's.
Initially before his
presentation, we watched the following video for a brief introduction to LitPick.
LitPick’s mission is
to help preteens and teens develop a lifelong love of reading by empowering
young readers to share their opinions in a social community.
Here is how LitPick works:
Students can enroll as LitPick
book reviewers either individually or as part of a student group sponsored by a
librarian, teacher, or other educator.
Signing up groups of students as LitPick reviewers is a great way to
create and manage book clubs too.
You can find the Group signup form online.
Once students complete an online application and are approved by LitPick as
student book reviewers, they can login and select a book to review.
The books are primarily new and advance
copies of preteen and teen books submitted by a wide variety of authors and
publishers. Each student reviewer
must have an adult sponsor who will help them choose an age-appropriate book
for them to review, as well as assist them with writing their reviews.
After login, students can choose a book
to review from a long list of available titles. EBooks are free to review. For a nominal administrative fee to cover handling and
postage, print books are also available for review.
A student reviews
their book in 4 – 6 weeks and then logs back into LitPick where he or she
submits the review online.
Submitted reviews are
then evaluated by either adult underwriters or the student’s group
sponsor. These adults provide
valuable feedback to the students about their writing and decide if a review is
to be accepted or returned to the student for editing.
The LitPick Sponsor Educator Interface
is a great way for group sponsors to manage and give feedback to their
students.
After a review is
approved, it is posted on LitPick for the world to see!
The LitPick book
review program is a fun way to encourage students to read and write using
eBooks and the Internet.
Students also earn points and badges
for writing book reviews, posting forum comments, providing correct answers in
LitPick’s vocabulary quiz, and for writing quality book reviews.
LitPick is fun for students!
They feel empowered by the LitPick book
review process and seeing their reviews online for others to reference. And
since these reviews are often among the first comments on an author or
publisher’s new title, the review may also appear on the book’s website or even
be printed on the book cover! How
cool is that?!
To
learn more about how LitPick.com works go to the
website.
You won’t be disappointed if you get your students
involved in this great site.
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