| Imagine a world where kids just can’t
wait to tell EVERYBODY about a book they just read… Imagine a school
where the kids are lining up for a turn to give a book review before the
ENTIRE school… That’s not your imagination…. That’s just an
average day at Lansdowne Elementary! It’s the Lansdowne Book
Talks which have everyone talking, about books, that is!
On a totally volunteer basis, students write a review of a book they have recently read. Students hand their reviews to the librarian, Candy Zaluski, who has been inundated by the student book reviews. Next, STLP members tape the students giving the book reviews. Joint School Technology Coordinators and STLP coordinators, Annette Moore and Boyd Huffman, organize the STLP videographers. The STLP members have added some tremendous jingles and ads to the video clips. Book Talks airs on the Lansdowne closed circuit television network every Friday morning. When you see the audience response to this program, it is hard to tell just who is enjoying it most, the students or the teachers. According to Boyd Huffman, the program has become so popular that STLP members and coordinators find “more students signing up to share their books than there is time to tape.
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Mrs. Jane Gettler, principal of
Lansdowne Elementary, commented that “This is a wonderful project
derived from our Closing the Gap Institute held last June in the area of
promoting Literacy. The Lansdowne team felt like it was very important to
feature books through the eye of students. The Book Talks have been
well received, and the students are the winners and the stars by
appreciating books early in life.”
Boyd Huffman shares a wonderful story that really demonstrates the success of Book Talks. On Friday, October 5, we had no school and no Book Talks were shown at Lansdowne Elementary. Boyd has had one upset student approach her again and again because they didn’t get to see Book Talks on the day we were off from school. A number of other students have asked when they were going to see the Book Talks they missed. Imagine… a school where the kids feel like they missed out on school activities when they have a day off…
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* Submitted by Barbara Barr, District TRT
