Digital Booktalk

Creating the Digital Booktalk was a challenge that I enjoyed. I used a program I was not previously familiar with, Microsoft Photo Story, to create it. I worked to determine which pages in the story I wanted to use in the project, took pictures of them until I got them just the way I wanted them (or as close as possible), uploaded them, and went to work. Removing the black background that came with them proved to be a challenge that I was able to fix in most of my pictures. I left the first and last ones with the background because I needed the entire cover picture and decided it would be more aesthetically pleasing to do the same with the final picture. It took me a few recordings for each picture to say what I wanted just the way I wanted (sometimes the microphone would mess up the beginning or ending of some words). I typed up ahead of time what I wanted to say for each picture. While recording, I made some quick changes until I was satisfied. I decided not to use text or music because the music would drown out my words and the text would cover the pictures from the story. After one final check of the entire project, I saved it. My first digital booktalk.

Booktalks are important because they entice children to read. They hook students in, provide them with a little bit of the story, but “leave them hanging” about the ending. If the students want to know what happens, they must read it themselves! Creating a booktalk will impact me as a future teacher in that I will create more of these for other stories. I may make more videos, do live booktalks in front of my students, or a combination of both. We will just have to wait and see.