Reading for Pleasure: Book Talk Courtesy of The New York Times

The ideas that come out of The New York Times' Learning Network are sometimes hit-or-miss, but the ones in the link above are really quite useful, especially if you're trying to get young people to realize that there are as many different ways to respond to books as there are books.

It's always satisfying to have an institution like the New York Times resonate with what you've always practiced as an educator; such is the case with Book Talk Podcasts!

Reading for Pleasure: Podcasts for Getting Hooked on Books

Grade Five is officially off and running with the Book Talk Projects, Mrs. Testa expressed interest in having her students view my own Book Talk Podcast, so it might do everyone well to think about what's out there to read that students might want to dive into.  Ideally, I'd love to have entire classes of students doing their own podcasts about "What books are hot and what books are not!"--sort of an interesting self-perpetuating cycle of students' reading producing social memes that would prompt their peers to read.  This might be a nice option to have "on the menu" for next year.  

For the present, however, if anyone (teachers, students, parents) is having difficulty figuring out what students might want to read that is "of and in the moment" s/he can pick and choose from the podcasts here--the above screenshot is for grades K-5, the one below is for grades 6-12.

Reading for Pleasure: Book Talk Project Documents

Here are the documents I used when assigning Book Talk Projects.  I also had a sign-up sheet where students were required to commit to a book for the duration of the project's time-arc, usually about every five or six weeks they had to do a new Book Talk Project.  I also wanted to distinguish between the actual presentation of the "talking" part of the Book Talk from the "project" part.  The directions and rubric for the project are pretty clear about each.

N.B.: I did want to highlight that these aren't the district's official documents, but my own--feel free to modify them to suit the needs and ability levels of your own students.  If anyone would like to collaborate on something in this area, please e-mail me...

Reading for Pleasure: Book Talk Podcast

I realize I might be getting just slightly ahead of myself, but seeing as how the notion of pleasure reading has already been broached (Back-to-School Night), I wanted to post a model project that I did when assigning Book Talk Projects.  I'll also post the actual documents for Book Talk Projects soon (and, as always, feel free to modify and tweak as needed for your own classes), but for now I wanted to show off my own model for a Book Talk Podcast.  My book was H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness, a fine sample of speculative fiction--but don't take my word for it: click on the book cover's image at the left, download the podcast, and (vicariously) experience it for yourself!