“Peek a Book” is a play on words of the commonly known game peek a boo. This title is specifically chosen because the goal of this lesson is to give a sneak peek of my favorite book through three images. I want my students to see that I am a teacher who models a love of reading and encourages my students to read books they enjoy. In the gallery, you will notice a series of images – a diary, a backpack, and a child. After a few guesses from my students, I will reveal the title of the work, tell them why this is my favorite book, and explain the images presented.
These three, simple images, tell a great story and are meant to explicitly clue my class into the book I have chosen. This in particular represents the classic “Diary of A Wimpy Kid”. While I am an adult, I personally enjoyed this book because it was funny, relatable, and unique. I could relate to wanting to fit in like Greg, or feel tempted to ignore my morals like Rowley. This gallery shows three images which clearly represent the book. The kid is Greg Heffley, the main character, the book is the diary, and the backpack is meant to present his young age.
My students would see this example and then would be given the assignment to choose three images that represent their favorite book. It can be any story they like as long as they carefully choose pictures that respectfully portray their book. Students can choose stories they are passionate about and learn about finding appropriate images online. Pictures tell great stories and can be excellent sneak peeks into books they want their classmates to read.
Guiding Questions
1) Why do you think I chose these particular images to represent the book?
2) What book would you choose and why?
3) What images would you show and why?
I really loved this activity idea! You incorporated the gallery into your lesson really well and made the activity even more engaging. I also liked how you discussed the importance of modeling a love of reading. I think our attitude towards learning and the subjects we teach certainly rubs off on our students and I already know your classroom atmosphere will be a positive one. Thanks for sharing!
I really like this activity idea and allowing students to really show off their interests and passions. I think this activity is super engaging which allows students to get into the activity and find it fun. Like you mentioned modelling a love of reading to your students is key, it will inspire them to find a subject they are passionate about as well and may also inspire them to find a love of reading as well. I think that our students truly pick up on if we are teaching a subject because we love it or simply because we have too, which in turn will impact how they view the class and how hard they work to succeed.
A neat variation on the peek theme is to take a digital image and put it on a slide then then cover it completely with opaque shapes. Then duplicate the slide – one slide per shape. Then go back and edit out increasing numbers of objects.
That creates a slideshow of a “covered image” revealing itself step by step. Of course, you pick the order so that students have plenty of time to guess what it is.