Book+Talk

Book Talks are a great way to get your students excited about a particular book and about reading in general. Through Book Talks, you can demonstrate your own enthusiasm for a book, sharing observations that can entice others to want to read the book, too. Your written portion of this assignment should reflect you wearing two hats: a teacher and a student of education.

__The Teacher __ The first portion of what you write about will be the Book Talk itself. For this part, you should imagine that you are standing in your own classroom in front of middle school students in your subject area. Share a book that you enjoyed reading and you feel connects with your content area. Your challenge is to convince at least some members of your audience that they should read the book, too. So what should be in your book talk? Below is a checklist of items I'm looking for:
 * The book itself-- we want to see what you are talking about!
 * A hook--what's going to make us want to listen to what you have to say?
 * A brief summary of the story--share the highlights, the key dramatic moments--but don't give away the important details or the ENDING! This should be a teaser!
 * Characters--who are we going to get to know?
 * Favorite passages--read these to us as you weave together your talk!
 * Connections--students will begin to practice their Spidey powers if you share your own.
 * Author info--who wrote the book and what should we know about him/her?

__The Student of Education __ For the second part of this, you need to revert back to the student of education that you are. Describe how you could integrate this book into your classroom.
 * In what unit would you include this novel?
 * How would you incorporate the novel? Individual reads? Whole class? Small groups?
 * What types of activities would you have the students do to accompany the novel?
 * <span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","Book Antiqua",Palatino,serif; font-size: 120%;">What other texts/content would you tie into the book?
 * <span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","Book Antiqua",Palatino,serif; font-size: 120%;">Overall, what is your vision for this book in helping students activate and grow their schema?

<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","Book Antiqua",Palatino,serif; font-size: 120%;">Your written portion of this project that you will hand is includes the teacher and student perspectives above. This should be at a minimum of 5 pages double spaced.

__<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","Book Antiqua",Palatino,serif; font-size: 120%;">The Presentation/Share with Group __ <span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","Book Antiqua",Palatino,serif; font-size: 120%;">While all of this information should be included, how you present the info and its order is up to you. Think outside the box. How can you wow the audience? Remember, this is practice for your future classrooms, and middle school students are hard sales! Want some examples? I've provided a few links for you to explore: <span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","Book Antiqua",Palatino,serif; font-size: 120%;">[|http://nancykeane.com] This site has podcasts of shorter versions of book talks. The books are of varying levels, all the way from elementary to young adult. [|http://www.thebooktalker.com/topten.htm#8:] While these aren't podcasts, they are actual scripts of book talks the author has given in the past. These are young adult titles.http://booktalkingcolorado.ppld.org This site provides actual book talking tips.

<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","Book Antiqua",Palatino,serif; font-size: 120%;">Remember, you are sharing this category project with peers concisely. You will have about 5 minutes to discuss your book and visions for it in the classroom in about 5 minutes. Refer to the resources section for content area book titles.