Reflection

Reflection The first and most valuable lesson that I learned from doing several book talks with my classes this quarter is that students really do listen to what you have to say about books. I was continually amazed to see students actually reading some of the books that I suggested in my book talks. Because students are very likely to become excited to read a book after hearing you talk about it, it is also important to have multiple copies of the most popular books on hand so that their enthusiasm does not fade before they can get a hold of the book. It is also important to discuss multiple titles during your book talks. Students will need to have many choices to fall back on in case their original selection gets checked out by someone else.

 I also learned that book talks don't have to be time consuming or even excessively creative. It is best to choose a description that leaves the students wanting to know more about what happens next. Just giving them a taste of the book is often enough to get them interested. As a teacher I also learned that I must allow time for students to go to the library after I talk about books with them. This sounds silly, but often library time gets shoved to the end of the week and sometimes sacrificed all together if other, seemingly more pressing tasks need to be done too. It is vital that students are not only exposed to a wide variety of books, but that they are also given time to look for those books in the library.

 The last lesson that I learned from my book talk experiences is that it is wise to give the kids a paper list of the selections you talked about during your book talk. Be sure to include the title, author, and a brief description of each book. Instruct the kids to highlight the books that they are very interested in as you complete you book talk. Instruct students to take their list to the library with them when they are ready to check out books. This will keep you from having to answer a ton of questions about which book was by what author...etc.