This shiny little success story was written by Susan Hoffman, media specialist at Apollo High School. Susan is also part of the CMLE Outreach Panel, which meets monthly in a Google Hangout to talk shop. During a recent hangout, this little programming gem sparked the interest of others!

Drop ‘N Talk

This book talk experience is designed to quickly connect students with books. Here is what I did: I sent an e-mail to the teachers in my school asking if I could “Drop ‘N Talk” for five minutes at the beginning of their classroom hour. I set up a schedule and got assurance from each participating teacher that the agreed upon date and time would work.

Then, I just showed up with three to five works of fiction that, if possible, correlated with the subject matter of the course, or the general reading level of the class. By the time the teacher had attendance taken, my tempting talk was finished.

I created a “Drop ‘N Talk” display in the library. That way, students could easily spot the books I had introduced and check them out.“Drop ‘N Talks” were performed during “I Love to Read Month,” but they would also be fun to do during National Library Week, Banned Book Week, Teen Literature Day, or during any other celebration of reading.