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CROB: Choose Your Own Booktalk

Remember those Choose Your Own Adventure books we loved as kids? They were so captivating because they allowed us to take charge of the story and immerse ourselves in the character’s journey. Inspired by this concept, I created something called Choose Your Own Booktalk, or CROB. It is a fun and interactive way to introduce books to students, giving them a sense of control and choice in their reading journey.

How to Create an Engaging CROB Booktalk

Here is how you can bring CROB to life in your classroom:
  1. Select Your Books: Start by choosing books from your library or Sora that you want to introduce to your students.
  2. Gather Multimedia: Think about images that represent these books well. Record engaging booktalks in audio format, and collect book trailers or movie trailers related to the books.
  3. Create Your Slides: Make a slide for each book. Embed the videos or insert the audio booktalks into individual slides. Set the audio to autoplay. Each slide should have two buttons:
  4. Home Button: Returns students to the start to choose another booktalk.
  5. Rate it Here: Links to a form where students can rate the book or indicate if they would like to check it out. Link to an example form
  6. Design the Homepage: Create a homepage filled with emojis, each linked to a different booktalk slide. The images you choose can be based on pop culture references or whatever makes sense for your students. This visual and interactive element increases engagement and allows students to explore books in a fun way. Include a navigation video to guide students on how to use the booktalk.
  7. Interact with Students: While students navigate through the booktalks, walk around and engage with them. This helps build relationships as you learn about their book preferences.

 

Important Technical Information

Remove the Navigation Bar: Share a modified Google Slides link without the navigation bar. Change the sharing settings to public, then replace the part after edit in the URL with /preview?rm=minimal. [Check out the result here]

Skip Slides: Make sure only the first slide is visible initially by right-clicking on all other slides and selecting ‘SKIP’. This keeps the slides part of the slideshow but grayed out until needed.

Creative Possibilities

There are endless creative options with this technique. You could design review games, quizzes, or even a book inspired by the Choose Your Own Adventure format. If you have any ideas, please share them in the comments! 

Template

To make it easier, I created an editable template that you can copy and modify. All emojis are linked to their respective slides, and all slides except the first one are skipped. To change the slide layout, select the desired slide and click the arrow next to the plus button. Remember to change the link when sharing with students. Here is the template in all its glory. Empower your students by giving them voice and choice in their reading journey with CROB. Happy booktalking!

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