Have you speed dated lately? Here's our story...

 

Our six dates: Zlata's Diary; Mississippi Trial, 1955; Wolf Hollow;
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl;  Ella Minnow Pea; & The Outsiders

Speed Dating 2021 Style

We've speed dated before...in person. Last summer and now this week, we're having to do it over Zoom. Showing books one at a time with no smell (important feature of real books) or touch is awkward. So I took all the elements we loved best and devised a way to date online.

Just so you know, we are not a dating service. When I say speed date, I'm talking about matching people with books, of course. To get a flavor of past dates, read Speed Dating and SLC Adult New Readers Book Group Dilemma. 

Best-Loved Elements

The elements we loved best during in-person dating:

1. Daters determine criteria for evaluating the books

2. Collect data in one place, then learners calculate percentage of categories and overall book averages

3. Make front cover, summary, & first page available for review 

4. Set specific time for reviewing and rating each book (~7 minutes per book)

5. Option to work with a partner or independently

Online Solutions

Since we are still restricted to online interactions, here are the online tools which have provided the best solutions for this round of dating:

■ Create Google slide deck containing book information (book cover, summary, & first page of text for each book)

■ Set up Google forms to collect responses to the learners' criteria-focused questions and calculate question data

■ Use Google classroom to distribute Google slide deck to learners

■ Sign into Zoom so we may work together, review the assignment details, and then send partners out to work in breakout rooms 

■ Create a table in Google sheets* to compile data, perform calculations, & ponder data interpretation 

*Our group is working on building spreadsheets with equations. While speed dating is a reading activity, speed dating data lets us practice our math skills, thus reinforcing math in every day life.

What about you?

Here's the six books we're dating this week. 

Which book would you pick?

Please tell us in the comments below.

Our six dates: Zlata's Diary; Mississippi Trial, 1955; Wolf Hollow;
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl;  Ella Minnow Pea; & The Outsiders

In our next post, we'll share 

our criteria and reveal the winning book.