Save-a-Buck Booktalks

It's a common teacher-librarian problem: We prepare booktalks about a set of titles and generate so much excitement with students that all the books get checked out! 

Ack!

It's super frustrating to see a kiddo get excited about a story and not be able to have it. Sure, they can hold it, but it's just not the same. 

Enter Save-a-Buck booktalks: 

• I only talk about books that are IN the library. 
• If someone wants the book, I give it to them immediately with a "buck" to use as a bookmark. (They just saved themselves a bit of money by borrowing from the library instead of buying from a bookstore!)
• Rules: One book per person. Swaps wait until the end.

This works when you...

• know your collection really well, 
• can skim and scan book blurbs at lighting speed, 
• can talk off the cuff about books easily

Procedure:

• Gather a stack of books equal to the number of students in the class
• Prepare a set of "Save-a-Buck" bookmarks to give out with each claimed book (see Canva Template)
• Declare yourself a winner if you get rid of all the bucks!

Beat-the-Clock Booktalks

So many books, so little time!

This week, I'm doing "Beat the Clock" booktalks. The challenge is to talk about each book within 25 seconds before the slide moves ahead!

Students will hold up a "yes" or "no" card to show if they're interested in the book and then I'm on to the next book - no discussion - gotta keep moving!

We have a "Top 100 Middle Grade Books" on a visual and resource list, but I haven't officially book-talked all of them. This is a fast way to get it done! 

Most of the books I know well enough to improvise, but I wrote up notes to practice ahead of time. 

The notes are a mash-up of my own recollections of the story, goodreads reviews, and Canva's "Magic Write" to get a quick summary. Each cover links to the Goodreads page.

• Canva Slides to present
• Canva Template - to edit & add your own 
• Canva "Yes/No" voter cards - print, cut, laminate - lots of uses for these

Bingo Book Tasting

Here's a quick and fun way to ensure students are actually reviewing the titles we put out for them to sample: Combine a book tasting with a bingo board.

Grade 9 is coming to see our collection of books about WWII - and we have a ton! 

Fiction, nonfiction, memoirs, true survival stories, true rescue stories, DK books with engaging timelines and maps - it's fabulous but....

it can be overwhelming.

To help students focus, I create a Bingo Board that has lots of possible answers for each block. This helps students review the stack at their table with a sense of purpose.

They rotate around to different tables, gathering ideas of what to read and filling in their board. The ones with the most complete sheets get a mini Snickers.

To start, I show slides with the books and do quick booktalks about a few of them.

I create visual lists of the books for them to browse in our display.

Each student gets a bingo board and a pencil and then it's free time to explore the books!

Grade 9 LibGuide that highlights WWII books in our collection

Canva Template to the Bingo Board (I kept it simple for B&W printing)

Canva WWII Visual Book Lists (template) or public view

Extension Activity: Nicky & Vera

It's important to highlight the heroes amongst the everyday people who resisted the efforts of the Nazi party. 

The picture book Nicky & Vera, by Peter Sis, is a short and moving account of the Englishman, Nicholas Winton, who saved over 600 children from Prague by arranging foster families, train tickets, and documents to bring them alone on trains to London. 

After reading the story, I showed a clip from the British TV show "That's Life". 

In the show, we see the elderly Sir Winton surprised to meet some of the children he rescued all those years ago. It's an emotional moment for the students to see the characters in the picture book in "real life".

Visual Booktalks

Here's a quick way to add context when talking about a book: add pictures!

As I was preparing booktalks for this cycle's library time with grade 6-9 students, I found myself wanting to show some maps and "local color" like foods, vegetation, and settings to help students gain background about the story.

So after my usual bullets to highlight key characters and events, I added a collage of images (grabbed via the "search web" feature in google slides). The images show while I'm talking about the books - they engage the audience and they help me remember details to weave into the talk!

Visual Booktalks (slides)

Book Tasting Cafe: Gathering anecdotal evidence about student reading behaviors

The idea of the "Book Tasting Cafe" was sparked in 2008 when Jennie Scott-McKenzie posted about her activity, "Chez Dewey" on LM_Net. She had designed an activity to engage students in learning about the Dewey Decimal System by "ordering" books using a menu, but spin-offs quickly emerged. 

Today, the most common iteration is to set up the library like restaurant with books to "taste" as a way to hook students on choosing pleasure reading titles. The special touches of a place setting, placemat, tablecloths, menus, and other details create an ambiance conducive to reading and a feeling of ownership over one's book choices.

I've done variations of Book Tastings over the years because it's a great way to promote books, encourage students to take time to read into a book, and make reading feel like a special activity.  

But what I REALLY love about Book Tasting is the anecdotal evidence I gather while the students are busy reading.

While the students read silently at their tables, I watch them like a mama hawk. 

I'm watching to gather evidence about each one as a reader. What I learn about each child during the Book Tasting helps me connect him or her with books throughout the school year.

I learn...

• which students can get into the flow of reading quickly
• who struggles to keep their focus
• which students flip right to the end
• which students drift from the page quickly
• which genres grab their attention
• which students like lots of white space
• which students are willing to take a risk on an usual book
• which ones like a challenge
• which ones read fast 

Book choosing behaviors I see...

• starting in the middle
• smelling the pages
• reading the first page and looking at the cover again
• reading the blurb and moving on to something else
• reading the blurb and telling a friend about it
• flipping to the end to read the last page

These little bits of personal information about students' reading behaviors and preferences go into my mental file. When a child comes to the library, I pull up my memories of the Book Tasting and use the information I gathered to suggest books that will fit with what I saw that day. 

December Book Tastings in our library at

Oberoi International School in Mumbai

"Tasting" Notes

One genre per table

Students choose where to sit

They can move or stay where they are, depending on

how much they are enjoying the book. 

Five minutes per table.