Back in January, we were inspired by Jennifer LaGarde and Brad Gustafson’s 30-second book talk challenge.  Our 5th graders all worked on scripts and recorded 30-second book talks on Flipgrid.  Thanks to Flipgrid’s new Global Connections feature, our grid was shared with other users of Flipgrid.  I also shared it widely on social media. Over time, students from around the globe started adding their voices to our grid.  Thanks to views, likes, and judge’s choice, we now have a top 16 out of over 90 videos on the grid.

Using Google Drawing, I made a bracket for us to use over the month of March.  Round 1 is now open.  Students were placed into groups of four to compete against one another to move onto the next round.

I also embedded the drawing onto a Google Site with a form for voting.

This is my first attempt at a March Madness style reading incentive.  It is truly amazing to look at all 90+ videos and see how passionate and creative the kids were in their talk.  The real winners in all of this are the students who made the videos and every viewer who takes time to listen to their voices.  The March Madness event is just a little icing on top to celebrate our hard work.

We invite you to join in round 1.  Voting is open through the end of the night on March 17th.  Then, round 2 will be announced.  Please feel free to vote more than once and share with your own networks.

https://sites.google.com/clarke.k12.ga.us/epicbooktalk/