Laura Robb
There is great advertising power in book talks. When you invite students to choose an independent reading book to talk about each month, you improve students’ listening capacity and introduce them to myriad books and magazines. A class of 25 students that presents book talks for ten months introduces one other to 250 books. Yes, it’s a powerful way for students to motivate and engage one another as readers. Each month, reserve about 30 minutes of two or three consecutive class periods for books talks.
Books talks should take no more than two to three minutes and should focus on high-level thinking, not retelling. It’s important for you to model how you plan, take notes for, and practice presenting books talks so you build students’ mental model of the process. In my book Differentiating Reading Instruction, you’ll find an entire section on book talks in the classroom. If you have the binder (Teaching Reading: A Differentiated Approach), you’ll find guidelines for book talking in the section that discusses classroom libraries.
You shouldn’t have students complete a project for each book; this discourages and punishes your best readers. However, book talking is short, beneficial to the entire class, and develops students’ public speaking skills and self-confidence.
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