Book Talk

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Book Talk

• Using the Collaboratory Forums for Student
  Discussions about Independent Reading

Quest Academy Palatine, IL
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Independent Reading

• Students select books from Internet Book Club
  Independent Reading List monthly
• They choose a different categories each month
• They choose how they report back on their reading
  monthly
• Teachers give feed back, suggestions and
  evaluations monthly

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Independent Reading Lists
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Choices for Reporting Back

• Write traditional journal
• Participate in a Book Talk forum in the
  Collaboratory
• Create a 3D Diorama of a scene
• Summarize the book in a paper
• Write and present a Soliloquy
• Hold a Press Conference

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How the Book Talks Work

• Students choose a book from the Independent
  Reading List to read together for the month
• Students ask a teacher to set up a Book Talk
• Students post at least five meaningful entries
  over the course of the month
• Teachers post feedback and suggestions and
  evaluate the forum

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Book Talk Forum
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Something Wicked This Way Comes -- Ray Bradbury

• 7th grade girls engaged in reading
• They exchanged reflections, insights, and
  analyses on the novel
• Teachers gave them feedback and suggestions for
  interpretation and discussion

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A Book Discussion
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Discussion Sample Lina

• Date Posted Oct/06/2003 640 PM
• I just read the first chapter and it sounds
  really cool!! I think that we should all read the
  book by chapters, like 1-2 chapters per night, or
  more if there really short. I think that Will H.
  and Jim N. are different, just like Amy said. Jim
  seems more mysterious and curious and he seems to
  think things like lightening striking his house
  are fascinating.

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Lina Continues

• I also think that that plays off of him being
  born on Halloween. Will H. does seem more caring,
  friendly and outgoing, i.e. when the salesman
  asks for the boys names Will says his quickly
  and Jim takes his time.

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Kayla Adds Her Thoughts

• Date Posted Oct/07/2003 845 AM
• I read the first three chapters and they are very
  cool!!! I am kinda confused about whose dad is
  who. . . it seems like Jim's dad should be more
  like Will's dad because they are both
  intellectuals and very interested in reading.
  Maybe something happened with the two dads??? I
  don't know, what do you people think?

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Mr. Shilhanek Replies

• Date Posted Oct/07/2003 856 AM
• Excellent start, girls. I love seeing the
  comparisons. I want you to think about something.
  What did you think of the lightning rod salesman?
  Will this character be important in the remainder
  of the book? Think of some of the symbolism of a
  lightning rod. Keep it up.

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Chirsti Contributes

• Date Posted Oct/07/2003 631 PM
• I think that even though Jim and Will are best
  friends, they are very different. Jim is more
  reckless, curious and mischievous. With the
  lightening rod, he didn't want to put it up
  because he wanted to see what would happen.

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Christi continues

• He enjoys the thrill of danger, like Tom
  Sawyer, even though he does not do some of the
  things he would've because he has Will there to
  talk him out of it. Jim is educated (he
  recognizes the Egyptian and Phoenician writing)
  even though he does not act like it sometimes.
  Will likes to be safe and sometimes doesn't want
  to do the things Jim does because he is worried
  about the consequences.

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Christi continues

• Also, he wanted to put the lightening rod up
  right away because he didn't want anything bad to
  happen. Will is also smart, because he reads
  longer books, and his father is a librarian.

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Christi Concludes

• The lightening rod salesmen seems paranormal,
  because he knows when a bad storm is coming and
  has lightening rods that, as he says, can hear,
  feel, know, and soft-talk to storms, and will
  absorb the shock from lightening better than any
  other kind of lightening rod. But, is he also
  caring? He gives a rod to Will and Jim even
  though they have no money to pay for it. I think
  that the salesman's arrival foreshadows other
  strange occurrences.

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Kayla steps up

• Date Posted Oct/08/2003 439 PM
• Will seems very misplaced in his family. Like he
  does not belong. His family just brushes him off
  and pays little attention to him. His is a loner,
  wanting peace and quiet. Will is afraid to talk
  to his dad, so he just listens to him speak. That
  would be awful to not be able to talk to my
  parents. I would probably burst because I would
  be holding things inside for so long. I think
  Will's dad is ashamed of being a janitor and puts
  all his efforts into it so that he doesn't have
  to face his wife or Will. It is weird how he
  burns the poster about the carnival. I also
  sensed at the beginning of the book that he felt
  inferior to Jim's dad because he was not as smart
  or interesting to talk to.

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Kayla Keeps Writing

• The writer talks about how Jim almost died when
  he was three. This made him a different person
  because he grew more serious and secluded as the
  years went on. This might also be the reason why
  he takes more risks. After being close to death
  he wants to live life to the fullest. The writer
  also talks about how Jim looks at everything and
  cannot look away, making him seem older and worn
  out. Will, on the other hand, prefers to look
  beyond or around, therefore only taking in six
  years of staring. I would rather live Jim's life
  because then I could take in everything and not
  miss a bit. Jim's mom mentions something about
  having three children and then loosing all but
  one. Also, Jim mentions that his mom had been
  bruised along time ago and that the bruises never
  went away. There is something in her past that is
  haunting her that makes her very protective of
  Jim. Jim says that he will never get hurt. He has
  this childlike stubbornness to him that makes him
  think that just because he says so nothing can
  ever hurt him.
• The carnival coming to town has a big effect on
  all of the characters. They all find it very
  strange that it should be coming so late in the
  year. The mysterious figure in the ice really
  intrigues me. The lightening rod salesman, Jim,
  Will, Charles, and Will's dad are all very drawn
  to THE MOST BEAUTIFUL WOMAN IN THE WORLD. It
  should be interesting to see how it all plays out.

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Kayla Concludes

• The writer talks about how Jim almost died when
  he was three. This made him a different person
  because he grew more serious and secluded as the
  years went on. This might also be the reason why
  he takes more risks. After being close to death
  he wants to live life to the fullest. The writer
  also talks about how Jim looks at everything and
  cannot look away, making him seem older and worn
  out. Will, on the other hand, prefers to look
  beyond or around, therefore only taking in six
  years of staring. I would rather live Jim's life
  because then I could take in everything and not
  miss a bit. Jim's mom mentions something about
  having three children and then loosing all but
  one. Also, Jim mentions that his mom had been
  bruised along time ago and that the bruises never
  went away. There is something in her past that is
  haunting her that makes her very protective of
  Jim. Jim says that he will never get hurt. He has
  this childlike stubbornness to him that makes him
  think that just because he says so nothing can
  ever hurt him.
• The carnival coming to town has a big effect on
  all of the characters. They all find it very
  strange that it should be coming so late in the
  year. The mysterious figure in the ice really
  intrigues me. The lightening rod salesman, Jim,
  Will, Charles, and Will's dad are all very drawn
  to THE MOST BEAUTIFUL WOMAN IN THE WORLD. It
  should be interesting to see how it all plays
  out.

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Kayla Moves Forward

• Date Posted Oct/14/2003 304 PM
• Wow!! The plot just picked up a lot in the last
  ten chapters I read!!! The imagery used in these
  chapter helped me paint a very detailed picture
  in my mind of the carnival. Charles Halloway is
  very interesting with his point about how three
  AM is when people are closes to death. That kind
  of creeped me out. I also thought that he was
  right about the way that mother are always more
  attached to their children because the carried
  them around for so long. He said that women are
  immortal because they have their children to go
  on living after them. The children are just
  reincarnates of the women he says. Men don't have
  that option.
• Miss Foley seems like a sweet lady. i don't quite
  understand what happened in the house of mirrors
  that made her so frightened but I get the feeling
  that someone of something was in there other that
  mirrors. Her "nephew" or so she thinks is just
  missing could be a possible suspect for the
  events in the house of mirrors.
• Mr. Coogers transformation was very eerie. They
  played the funeral march backwards because he was
  edging away from death. I think that was a clever
  idea by the author. It seems like Mr. Cooger has
  a photographic memory the way they explain the
  clicking when he looks at them.

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Book Talk Stats

• This topic has 63 posts and then was split into
  two topics. The second topic has 18 posts. Kids
  finished this book in December
• There is currently a book talk forum and an
  archive.
• There are over 45 topics in the book talk forums
• There are over 2000 contributions from students
  discussing their reading

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Good readers read Good writers write

• Balazs Dibuz
• Quest Academy