Booktalks

One book that has greatly inspired me is Nancie Atwell's, The Reading Zone. This book explains different ways in which teachers can incorporate free reading into the classroom. So many times, students begin to lose interest in reading when they enter high school. Reading becomes the equivalent of writing papers and completing worksheets, which understandably squashes any teenager's love of reading. In this book, Atwell discusses the idea of booktalks, where students and teachers suggest great book titles to one another. Atwell states that, "Booktalks are short, direct, and mostly enthusiastic: endorsements of particular titles, not oral reports" (67). I believe that this is a great way for students to hear what their peers are reading. Some of the blogs I post on here will be in the form of a booktalk. I suggest Atwell's book to any teacher of reading. It has some great ideas to turn students into life-long readers. I have already been buying books for my future classroom library. (Half Price Books is great place to buy gently used books) I've really been trying to buy a variety of books from every genre to suit the needs and interests of all my students. If I can do one thing as a teacher, it would be to instill a love of reading in students. Hopefully by incorporating Atwell's idea of the Reading Zone into my own classroom, I will be able to do so.