Video Book Talks

Today we began talking about book talks and the great benefits of using them in the classroom. In my corrective reading class, we learned about traditional book talks and each gave one to our class. We discussed the importance of motivating students to read by giving short book talks over a variety of books every day. I think this is a great way to introduce children to new books and genres that they may not have picked up at the library on their own. In technology we learned a new spin on book talks! Instead of simply standing in front of the class and presenting a book, students are involved in creating short movies about their book. These movies give a lot of the same information that traditional book talks do, but allow students to be creative and show this information in a fun way. We all know how influential students peer group can be, and I think having book talks given by peers would be even more motivating than those given by the teacher.

In class we were placed into groups of four to create a video book talk. My group read the book Eleventh Hour by Graeme Base. This is a really neat book with beautiful illustrations. It is about an elephant named Horace who decides to throw a magnificent eleventh birthday party. He plans eleven activities which are to be followed by a feast of eleven of Horace’s favorite foods. When it comes time for the feast, the food is gone. The reader can then go back and try to solve the mystery of who ate the feast. There are clues in the pictures, as well as a code in the back that readers need to create a cipher to solve. I would strongly recommend this book to all readers!