Book Talk Assignment

Inkheart Booktalk

Book Talk Assignment

The goal of this assignment is to gain practice presenting book talks to an audience.

Link to my: booktalk (Working on creating a presentable link)

Assignment:

During one Elluminate session you will present a 4-6 minute book talk.  There will be 2 or 3 sessions of book talks – depending on the number of students enrolled in the class.  You will be randomly assigned to present during an Elluminate session. While you will be presenting to your peers, assume that the target audience is tweens.

Book talk : A book talk is  a short talk designed to give the audience enough information to interest them in reading a book.

Here are some things to keep in mind when writing and performing a book talk.

  1. Read the book!  This may seem obvious, but it is important.  Reading the book gives you authenticity – if you haven’t read the book at some point it will be obvious, maybe not all the time, but to someone at sometime.
  2. Like the book. It is difficult to convey enthusiasm if you didn’t like the book.
  3. Know your audience.  In this case you have an audience of people who care enough about tweens to be taking a class in tween materials.  As you take book talks into your work world, get to know something about your audience; it will help you know which books to talk about.
  4. Do NOT give away the ending- again this may seem obvious.  The idea is to give enough detail to raise interest in the book, but not so much your listener no longer has to tread the book to know what happens.
  5. DO NOT read from a script; a book talk is a performance, not a speech.
  6. Practice.
  7. Practice.
  8. Practice.

Structure

  1. Beginning – Focus the audience on the book and  provide necessary background.
  2. The hook – this is where you build interest, set the critical scene, ask the critical question.
  3. The close – not necessary but a good place to make connections to other books, etc.  For an example: If you liked the adventure of Harry Potter you enjoy following Percy Jackson on his magical journey.

This is a very brief overview of book talking.  You can find book talks online to use for examples.
Grading:   The grade will be based on presentation.  Was the talk smooth, and did you convey enthusiasm for the book?  Did you consider the structure of a book talk and the rules of book talking?

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