A couple of months ago when Brad Gustafson (principal/lead learner at Greenwood Elementary School in Plymouth Minnesota), asked me if I wanted to help him create a "book talk" play-off podcast, of course I jumped at the chance. Since then, we've been plotting, scheming, designing, collaborating (mostly over Voxer) and collecting video book talks from some of the finest educators on the planet, so that we can bring you (insert drum roll here) ...
The #30secondbooktalk Podcast Challenge!!!!
The podcast features 16 educators giving a 30 second "book talk" for their favorite children's, middle grades or young adult book. These instructional titans will face off, head to head, in a bracket style challenge until only one BOOK TALK CHAMPION OF THE WORLD emerges! There is an admin side of the play-off bracket, which we're calling the "Lead Learners," led by Brad, and a Media/Literacy Guru side of the play-off bracket, which we're calling the "Literacy Legends," led by me! Each booktalk is SO different. And I love them all. But only one of our Book Talkers can be named champion and win the coveted Vince Lombooki Prize. (Watch the video to learn more about this coveted digital trophy).
So... how will we decide who will be crowned World Book Talk Champion? Well... that's up to you!
Between now and the end of the Super Bowl (which Brad tells me means approximately 9pm EST on February 7th) we'll be collecting votes from students, teachers and administrators for their favorite Book Talk. ANYONE can vote! And taking part is easy. Here's all you do:
1. Watch the videos!
#30SecondBookTalk World Book Talk Championship
2. Cast your vote by either tweeting the Twitter Handle of your
favorite Book Talker to #30secondbooktalk OR use this voting
link: bit.ly/30secondbooktalk_vote to vote via Google
Form.
While you can bet that Brad and I will be talking smack on the Twitters all this week, the real goal behind this project is to share a way in which more children can see more adults talking about the books they love. To that end, Brad and I created some supplementary materials to help teachers replicate the #30secondbooktalk challenge in their own schools, including a blank bracket for you to fill in with the names of kids and adults who are ready to take up the #30secondbooktalk challenge AND a book talk scoring rubric to help kids pick their favorite book talks. All of these materials are yours to use/share as you see fit. Our only request is that you use them to help kids become readers and that in those efforts you BE AWEsome!
Finally, I want to send a massive, sloppy thank you to everyone who participated (including Oliver Schinkten who did all the commercials for us - because what would the Super Bowl of Book Talks be without commercials??) While the competition is a fun aspect of this, it's really about sharing our love of books and reading with kids. I'm so grateful to everyone who was willing to step outside of their comfort zone and create an AWEsome #30secondbooktalk to help us reach that goal. Y'all are AMAZEballs! Truly, everyone who participated is a winner. (But let's be honest, the Literacy Legends are totally winning this thing!)
Now, without further ado...
LET THE VOTING BEGIN!
