It’s that time of the year again. I’m well into the school year, we have established our classroom routines, and we are beginning to form our community for the year. I can imagine the journey we will take over the course of a year spent learning, growing, and laughing together. Sometimes I think that it is ***magical*** the way a group of children will come together and create a special community, but I know that isn’t the case. Cultivating community is intentional, and it takes some behind-the-scenes work by the teacher to make the magic happen!
Currently I teach fourth grade, but I have taught almost every grade from preK to eighth grade, and building an ongoing sense of community around books is one of the surefire ways to grow a culture of reading in a classroom. I use book talks as a way for us to get to know each other as readers and to create a low-stakes way for students to share what they read. It is amazing how this simple practice can become a profound way for my students to connect with both their own reading identity and the community that surrounds them. Here’s how I do it.
I always start the year doing my own book talks to share a few high-interest books: fun picturebooks, always a few series to hook readers, and novels that just beg to be read. Once I have introduced book talks, it’s pretty easy to get a few other kids to begin to share what they read with the class. I have students give a very brief summary, but really encourage kids to identify genres, make connections to other similar books they might have read, and recommend the type of reader who might enjoy a particular book. This is where the magic starts to happen!
Often, my first book talks become our first classroom read-alouds. I use picturebooks such as This Is a School by John Schu and All Are Welcome by Alexandra Penfold to talk about community and the feeling of belonging we will create throughout the year. The classic book Frindle by Andrew Clements is also always a big hit!
Books such as The Proudest Blue: A Story of Hijab and Family by Ibtihaj Muhammad with S.K. Ali, Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut by Derrick Barnes, and The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi speak to inclusivity and celebrate the diversity in our classroom.
Finally, I use books such as Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein, The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires, and The Undefeated by Kwame Alexander to reinforce a growth mindset, classroom routines, and social-emotional learning.
Throughout the year, I encourage daily book talks by keeping an ongoing sign-up list on my whiteboard. The momentum builds as students share their favorite books and we create anchor charts that hang around the classroom, documenting who read what and inspiring future reading selections.
As the year unfolds, we discover that Caitlin adores The Babysitter’s Club book series by Ann M. Martin, the vintage books from the ’80s that her mom saved from her own childhood, and is methodically working her way through all 131 of them. We never get tired of a book talk that starts with, “You won’t believe what happened to Kristy and Dawn in Book #24!”
We quickly find out that Jackson loves the I Survived books and that Jeremy has read so much nonfiction that he can answer almost any question about any topic! By the end of the year, they even organically form student-led book clubs, fueled by the desire to talk about their favorite books, where Tilak and Benny and Hayes race to get to the end of Hello, Universe by Erin Entrada Kelly.
As the months go by, the influence of our book talks extends beyond our reading lives and begins to shape the way students see themselves as writers, too. When students share books they love, they start to borrow techniques, vocabulary, and even structures from their favorite authors. I’ll hear a student say, “I tried to make my character talk like Kristy from The Babysitter’s Club,” or “I wrote my ending with all of the action and suspense in an I Survived book!” These moments are more than just imitation, they are evidence that students are learning from each other.
Even more powerful is the way book talks give students an authentic purpose for communication. When Caitlin prepares to tell the class about Book #24, she jots a few notes to make sure she doesn’t forget the most exciting parts. When Jeremy recommends his favorite nonfiction title, he explains why he thinks others should read it, sharing his favorite facts and personal connections. Without realizing it, my students are practicing opinion writing, summary, and persuasive language. All of that magic is embedded in a joyful, student-centered experience.
By the end of the year, I often see a shift: students are no longer just consumers of stories, but curators and creators. They write more, write better, and write with a voice that has been nurtured by the books they’ve read and the community they’ve shared them with. Book talks start as a way to build connection, but they end up building confident, thoughtful readers and writers. And that is the magic that makes a classroom a community!
