Procedure:
- Every student selects a book or a text. The other students must not see what book it is. Beginners may select a picture book. The instructor makes a list where the students “secretly” record their book title.
- The students place their book in a jacket to cover the title page.
- The students look for a passage in their book that is suitable for reading aloud to the class (the passage must be exciting or interesting; at the same time, it must not reveal just everything). The selection of an appropriate passage (ca. 1/3 – 1 page) requires an intensive examination of the text.
- Reading out loud must be practiced! The students receive ample time to practice reading aloud (preferably outside of the classroom). This can also be assigned as a homework task. The beginners who chose a picture book will be tasked to describe a chosen picture as vividly as possible.
- The students then read their selected text passages to the class (or describe the chosen picture, respectively). The listeners try to guess to which book the text passage belongs, or the genre of the book (thriller, nonfiction, fairy tale, etc.). The titles for reading aloud and guess-the-book exercises can also be distributed over 2–3 lessons.
Remarks:
This exercise can also be organized as a little contest. The person who first guesses the correct title wins.
Variants:
The project can be varied in many ways. Example:
- Books written in the school language could be considered as well; however, the presentation must occur in the first language.
- At the end of the year, the instructor reads to the class text passages from books that were discussed during the year. From which text where they taken?
- All title pages will be copied on a piece of paper and numbered. The students must match the passages with the title pages.
- All book titles were listed on a sheet and given to the listeners. They must now match the read out passages with the titles.
- The choice is limited to a certain type of text (fiction titles, factual texts, poems, fairy tales…).
- The students read the text passages at parents’ evenings. The parents receive a list of the books and must guess.
- The students bring their favorite books to class and read from them to the class.
- Parents, relatives, other teachers are invited to read a passage from their favorite books.