Student Book Talk Example - A Quick Way to Replace Book Reports and Encourage Personal Reading

In an increasing non-fiction atmosphere, English and history teachers will have to work hard to establish ways to connect students to "good" reads.  I found that tapping into one of my naughty, little-sister brat activities gave me an idea for an assignment that accomplished a lot of my goals.  I wanted students to hear from each other about books that they found exciting - not just me, I needed to keep the time this assignment took minimized -  yet generate teaching a lot of objectives or measuring the effectiveness of my teaching of a particular objective.

My older sister, a Phi Beta Kappa, very cerebral - used to keep a file of her numerous favorite quotes. These were decorated and neatly stored in a box on her desk that was off limits to me - seven years her junior. However, never let it be said that privacy was in my lexicon at that point.  I was nine and she was sixteen. I rummaged through her quotes and was impressed by her dedication, decorations and literary choices.

Jump ahead to 2004, and the increasing pressure to produce not just proficient test scores, but advanced proficient test scores and I remembered how intrigued I was by my sister's quotes.  Often, her quotes inspired me to seek out the book from the local library or make a mental note to check the book out later. I decided this was a quick and relevant way to get some literary analysis, without the mind-numbing requirement of a book report.

I did ask students to identify and define any vocabulary they felt might be considered difficult and I used those words for tests and quizzes. Additionally, the book talks generated an oral presentation grade along with a brief written report - but the oral reports were limited to 3 minutes. Usually, the whole class could present in a period.

An example is provided for you to use as you like - let me know of any modifications that work for you.

Book Talk: Example - Don’t forget to explain your book briefly, have a prop/graphic, and explain quote and why you chose it and vocabulary

                                                                     Suzie Student

                                                                     Jones English 2

                                                                     9/21/2014

Citation:

Caldwell, Ian and Thomason, Dustin.  The Rule of Four.

        New York: The Dial Press, 2004.

Quote:

               Hope, Paul said to me once, which whispered from Pandora’s box only after all the other plagues and sorrows had escaped, is the best and last of all things.  Without it, there is only time, And time pushes at our back like a centrifuge forcing us outward and away, until it nudges us into oblivion.  That, I think, is the only explanation for what happened to my father and me, just as it happened to Taft and Curry, the same way it will happen to the four of us here in Princeton inseparable as we seem.  It’s a law of motion, a fact of physics that Charlie could name, no different from the stages of white dwarfs and red giants.  Like all things in the universe, we are destined from birth to diverge.  Time is simply the yardstick of our separation.  If we are particles in a sea of distance, exploded from an original whole, then there is a science to our solitude.  We are lonely in proportion to our years (Caldwell & Thomason 196).

Vocabulary:

1. centrifuge- an apparatus consisting of a compartment spun about a central axis to separate contained materials of different specific gravities

2. oblivion- a place of nothingness

3. diverge- to go separate ways