‘Book Talks’ help Fulton’s students ‘sell’ idea to read

October 31, 2018
WHAT’S THE ANSWER – Cyndi Brown’s second grade class at Carr Elementary in Fulton is shown working together to answer questions about a story they are currently reading in class.  (Photo submitted)
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(Editor’s Note: The following was submitted by Dana Crawford, Assistant Principal, Fulton Independent School)

Throughout my teaching career, I have used booktalks on a regular basis to motivate, inspire, and share quality literature with students. With elementary school students, the booktalk can be an effective tool to hook reluctant readers and is an important component of independent reading time and/or a Reader’s Workshop. In short, a booktalk is a brief oral discussion about a book where the purpose is to “sell” the book to other readers. In developing a community of readers, both the teacher and students give booktalks.
These talks are casual in nature and act as a “book trailer”, much like a movie trailer. The speaker may read a passage or two from the book and shares the best parts in an attempt to grab the audience’s attention. The booktalk is not a summary of the book and usually the talk ends with a cliffhanger.

Carr Elementary kicked off their first official morning meeting book talk last week. Fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Tiberi presented her favorite book to the entire student body and left several students wanting more. First grade teacher, Mrs. Nakia Brown followed by introducing the students to the book, Hatchet by author Gary Paulson.

It didn’t take long to spike students interest in sharing their favorite book with their peers. Fifth grade students Trey Warner and Zuzu Pulley both led book talks during morning meeting this week. We currently have students signed up to present every morning for the next two weeks!

We encourage you to ask your student what they are reading.

Get them talking about the book and allow them to practice their book talk in front of you.

Not only are we growing a community of readers we are also gaining communication and public speaking skills that will greatly benefit them in the future.

The Fulton Independent Bulldogs are also racing to the top in writing.

Our classes recently implemented a new writing strategy, the RACER strategy teaches students to

R – Restate the question to create a topic sentence.

A – Answer the question completely.

C – Cite evidence from the text to support your answer.

E – elaborate/explain the evidence.

R – restate the answer to create a closing sentence OR relate the answer to something in your own life.

It’s not all work and no play over here, as we hosted our annual Fall Festival Oct. 21 and our first Family Reading night of the year on Oct. 30. Families were invited to a Chili supper at 5 p.m. Trick or treated in the building at Carr Elementary at 5:30 wore their Halloween costumes. We wrapped up the evening in the library with reading and accelerated reader tests. Students had the chance to earn AR points and house points when attending! A special thank you to Wendy’s in Fulton for donating chili and sending Wendy herself out to help us serve our families.

Upcoming Events are Nov. 6- Election Day, No School; Nov. 8- Grow Festival; Nov. 12- Veterans Day Program; Nov. 16- Dinner Theater at Fulton High School; and Nov. 21-23 Thanksgiving Break.