"Listening to Teens Talk Back: Teen Responses to Booktalking Styles" (VOYA February 2009) shared survey feedback from 2,922 teens Li stening to five-book booktalking sessions in high school s, public librari es, and other community venues between January 2006 and August 2008. Locations included urban and small towns in the Houston and Galveston, Texas, area as well as remote to urban areas of North Carolina, from beach communities to small mountain hamlets. A smaller number of booktalkers presented talks to high school teens in Oklahoma, Colorado, West Virginia, Connecticut, Minnesota, Tennessee, and South Carolina. The initi al assumption that the first-person booktalk was th e most po pul ar with li steners was based on my informal di scuss io ns with teens as well as my experi ence booktalking young adult titl es for more than two decades in locales as varied as Alaska, Hawaii, Wisconsin, Texas, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Would thi s assumption hold true with a variety of booktalkers? As an instructor of master's level courses in literature for young adults, I had a ready pool of booktalkers who were K- 12 school librari ans and classroom teachers, public librari ans, and a small group without a school or librar y background. Levels of bookt alking experience ranged from a few who had been booktalking for many years to novices who had never before heard of booktalking, let alone presented one. Those who had booktaLked before had not done so in a structured format. Many of the novice booktalkers, especiall y the elementary- level educators, had not read young adult literature pri or to choosing the titl es for the booktalking session so they were asked to select a theme on which to focus before selecting their five books, four of which had to be YA titl es recommended for hi gh school age teens. The remaining titl e could be a crossover book, but most chose exclusivel y YA titles. The theme not only helped the booktalkers select titl es, it also proved to be fun for the teens. A booktaLker who chose a "secrets, do we share or hide them?" theme commented after booktalking to a "tough" group of eleventh graders: "As I wrapped up the first book and began to move into the second book, a student from the far side of the room suddenl y said, ' Hey! What's the secret?' By the end of the second book, when anot her student call ed out ' So you ain't gonna tell us that secret either?' I knew I had garnered interest and felt successful." A few of th e booktalkers initi ally challenged the idea that older teens would enjoy hear ing booktalks. A novice booktalker who teaches hi gh school Spani sh commented that she had not heard of booktalking before and "was not sure a group of teens would be interested in listening to me talk about books; however, I found the experi ence to be a positi ve o ne." Another, moving from working in a bookstore to a school librar y, noted that she initi aIJy felt that booktalking was "irrelevant and too elementary for hi gh school students, but I was compl etely wrong. If anything, booktalks are more relevant to high school st udents than younger students." Although th ere was an occasional booktalker who honestl y stated in the concluding self-evaluation that he/she did not enjoy booktalking, all acknowledged that it was an effecti ve reading incenti ve ac ti vit y with older teens. Even when the booktalker was not a "natural" at this reading incentive technique, the teens still enjoyed hearing the booktalks. BOOKTALKER INSTRUCTIONS The booktalkers involved in this still-ongoing study received sa mpl e theme-based booktalking session transcripts, video footage of a booktalking session, sample individual booktalks, and access to online sites for addressing booktalking techniques. They also received instruction on creating a five- book theme- based booktalking session with booktalks presented in three different styles. The first-person booktalks involved becoming one of the characters in the book. The di scussion booktaLk shared a funny or scary incident in the book, and the excerpt style required the booktalker to read a sect ion of text fro m the book. Participants were expected to present one of each booktalk styl e, with the other two booktaLks' styles self-selected. Most chose either the excerpt or the di scussion style for the other two booktalks. It is interesting to note that a number of th e parti cipant s' self-evaluations indi ca ted that they surpri sed th emselves by di scovering the first-person style to be the most fun to present. A new middl e school librari an, booktalking with hi gh school teens for the first time, openly admitted her initial lack of confidence in presenting the first- person talk but went on to share her delight in being able to relax and even add a few new lines that weren't in her notes. Anot her excitedl y shared that one of the teens asked her if that had reaIJy happened to her. The teen was so into the first-person booktaLk that she had totall y forgotten that the booktalker had take n on a character's persona and was not sharing her own story. FIRST PERSON STYLE BOOKTALKS-THUMBS UP The assumption that listeners would respond the most positively to the first-person style booktalk in sessions with older teens proved to be correct, with 42 percent of the teens choosing the first-person style as their favorite. The data from the hosts, mainly librarians, teachers, and youth- group leaders, also indi cated that the fi r st- person booktalk was their favorite style. The teens' and hosts' second choice was the excerpt style. Last place went to the discussion style. Among the 180 hosts (some booktalkers had more than one host), only 24 were male, with half of this small group choosing the first-person style as their least favorite booktaLk style. With so few male hosts involved, thi s subset of data may not be extremely relevant, but it is supported by a male public library YA speciali st who stated that hi s "main gripe with the first-person presentation is that it seems awfull y condescending for the older teens; a good marketing tool perhaps, or a good tool to use online, but when presented vocall y it seems too childish." As was the case with the hosts, a majority of the booktalkers were wo men. It was, therefo re, no surpri se th at most of the first-person booktalks presented were for books wit h female protagonists, which may also help expl ain why 45 percent of the girls but onl y 39 percent of the boys chose the first- person style VOY4. presents peer-reviewed articles to share research with a wider audience. Research articles are reviewed for publication by VOYA's Editorial Board. ~ 7 I VOYA February 2010 www.voya.com Host Responses to Booktalking Session 120 +-____________________________________________ __ 100 80 69% 60 49% 51 % 40 31% 20 +--.....L..._ Heard Before Present ed Before as their favo rite. Perhaps if more of the booktalkers had been male and presented first-person booktalks for books with male protagonists, the percentage of boys choosing that style as thei r favo rite style mi ght have been higher and the male hosts wou ld have seen that teens, both male and female, respond favorably to men presenting thi s "entertaining" booktaLk style. Sur vey results and informat ional discussio n with teens about bookt aLk styles indicated that they do not respond weLl to lengthy, plot-dri ven, summary style booktalks. They do, however, respond well to a booktalk that pulls them in immediately with a quick question, which requiTes no more than a nod or shake of the listener's head, and then qui ckly focuses on a suspenseful or funny incident in the book, an intriguing character, or a unique setti ng. Some novice booktaLkers, however, saw the term discussion and assumed that whil e presenting thi s style, they were to engage in a group conversa ti on with the teens. But two things often happen when opening the floor to discussion during a str uctured booktalk ing session-it takes too much of the booktalking session time or t he teens stop li stening because it feels too much like a lesson. Equally important, the fl ow of the booktaLking session has been broken and it may be difficult, especiall y for a novice booktalker working with a group of teens with whom she does not regularly interact, to get the talkative teens back on track and wake up the ones who zoned out. BooktaLkers learn in their instructions that teens may choose not to interact with a booktaLker, especiall y someone they do not know. They may stare, expressionless, at the booktalker or look away and act as if they are not paying attenti on. The booktalkers were told to assume that the teens were paying attention but to make sure the questions were ones to which the teens could respond with a shake or nod of their heads. Noting that without this pri or understanding of how unresponsive teens may be, a novice booktalker said she would have been quite unnerved but happil y went o n to state that "although the students did not appear to be interested at the outset, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that they were paying attention to a great degree. Taken a step further, not only were they paying attention, but judging by the fact that many students wa nted to check out the books selected, the teens also were engaged and partici patory. The one great lesson that I have learned, is that at different stages of development, a lack of overt interest does not necessaril y indicate di sinterest." www.voya.com 99% 1% Effecti ve o Yes No EXCERPT STYLE BOOKTALKS-GIVE THEM A HAND The excerpt-style booktalk received the second highest percentage of both teens and hosts choos ing it as their favo rite style. Excerpt- st yle booktalks cl early hold a solid middl e ground, even when exa mining th e d ata as to teen a nd host least favorite styles. Onl y 30 percent of the teens and 28 percent of hosts chose the excerpt style as their least favor ite. The survey results suggest that although the first-person booktalk was rated the favorite style by the largest number of teens and hosts, they also enjoyed the excerpt style, which is a solid entr y in any booktaLking session. With the above data in mind, even the most novice booktalker ca n be successful by sta rting o ut with excerpt- style booktalks. Normall y able to read aloud weLl , librarians and teachers shoul d be abl e to enti ce teens to read books they have introd uced via an excerpt that has teens wa nting to know more. Although t he first-person and discussion-style booktalks must be self-c reated, an excerpt-style booktalk requires onl y the select ion of a passage of text to pique the li steners' attenti o n. Savvy booktalkers flag the excerpts that will make great book talk conten t as they read. Needing a booktalk quickly, all they need to do is pick up t he book, flip to a marked excerpt, and begin reading. As simpl e as reading aloud is to get teens involved in a book, informal input from both hi gh school teachers and libraria ns, as well as teens, indi cates that few hi gh school teachers read aloud to their st udents. Knowing that 30 percent of the almost 3,000 teens who attended the booktalking sessions selected the excerpt as their favorite style of booktalk should have secondary school educators rethinking the notion that reading alo ud is only for children. DISCUSSION STYLE BOOKTALKS-THUMBS DOWN The di scussio n-style booktalk was chosen as the least favori te by 44 percent of t he teens and 37 percent of the hosts. Some booktalkers expressed t heir disbelief over t he negative survey responses fro m the teens as they fe lt that they had presented a credible discussion-style booktaLk. One, however, openl y admitted that a few of the boys a ppea red "glassy-eyed" wi th boredom, but as a novice booktalker, she was afraid to deviate from what she had prepared. Others ack nowledged th at they had gotten February 2010 VOYA 1f,77 Most Favorite Booktalk Style 45 ,------------------------------------------------ 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 39% 0 +--'--- First Person 32% 30% Excerpt carri ed away and offered too much of the pl ot. Perhaps the word di scussion had been a poor choice as the defi ning "titl e" for the third booktalk style. Referring to it as a descripti ve booktalk style mi ght have res ulted in attenti on-getting booktalks that focused on an incident , a character, or a unique setting rather than the lengthy book summari es and gro up discussions that the teens did not like. A booktalker who is also a teacher offered insi ght into why a majo rity of her teen audi ence chose the discussion style as their least favorite: " Fro m a teacher's perspective, I ca n understand [it ]. St udents fee l that they are lectured to all of the time by their parents, teachers, and ot her ad ults in their li ves. Therefo re, [because] the discussion-style booktalk most closely represented lecturing, I can understand why st udents favored it the least." It is, however, heartening to note, especiall y for the booktalkers worried that a poorly received booktalk resulted in a cool recepti on to the book as well , that thi s concern was not typically the case. The teens were also asked, of the five books introduced, which one they would be most likely to read and whi ch one they would be least likely to read. The responses indi cated that a majori ty of the teens clearly separated the booktalk style fro m the book itself. They were as likely to choose a title they'd most likely read that had been booktalked in their least favorite style as one introduced in their favorite style. It also proved true that favoring a parti cular booktalk style did not necessitate that the teens choose a book to read that had been introduced in t his style. The teens' responses confirmed that a "fa il ed" booktalk did not condemn the book, no r d id a hi ghl y successful booktalk guarantee that the teens would select the book as the one they wanted to read. EXPOSURE TO BOOKTALKS The sur veys indi cate that a majo rit y of the teens and hosts who had the opport unit y to listen to the booktalkers enj oyed the exper ience. It is interes ting to note that o nly 35 percent of the tee ns indi cated they had heard a booktalk before, but almost twi ce as many hosts indi cated that they had previously hea rd booktalks . The sta ti sti cs, however, cha nge s ignifica ntl y in relat ion to the number of hosts who had presented booktalks themselves. 478 I VOYA February 2010 31 % 28% Discussion o Teens Hosts An interesting subset of host data ind icated that a majority of the Engli sh teacher hosts had heard booktalks before, but fewer than iO percent had presented a booktalk. On the other hand, all forty-four school and public librari an hosts had heard booktalks before, and onl y one public library YA speciali st noted that she had not presented a booktalk. Although the teens were not asked if they had ever presented a booktalk, it is interesting to note that the two comments abo ut teens presenting booktalks came fro m no n-school hosts. The first, from an adviso r of a public librar y's Mock Print z Book Club, noted that the booktalker had "a tough teen crowd because these teens booktalk every ot her weekend." The other was a youth group leader who noted that he wa nted the teens to begin doing their own booktaLks. WALKING THE TALK Some of the librari an hosts noted that Li stening to the booktalks gave them the incentive they needed to do more booktalking. Comments from many of the host teachers i.ndi cated that there would be future requests for their school librar ians to present booktalks to their students. An English teacher who wanted the booktalker to return next year and present to all of her English classes added, "[ would also like to see our librarian do thi s for us!" A health teacher, very pleased with the session, suggested that booktaLks should "be done in every class to enti ce the students to read." A few of the teachers said they would like to give booktalking a try, but most ind icated they would prefer that the booktaLkers revisit their classrooms and present more booktalks with their students. A male hi story teacher stated the booktalker " had the students in the palm of her hand . .. it was a pleasure fo r her to come in and ' take over.'" Not all of the booktalkers received such glowing praise, but it was evident from the host comments that they recogni zed the pos it ive impact the booktaLker had on the teen li steners and themselves. A U.S. Hi story department chair wrote, " I had oth er booktalks in my room, but never befo re have they made me wa nt to read the books immediately!" Other host comments included "the st udents were spellbound" and "awesome booktalk!" A male teacher hosting a group of teenage boys wrote that they "wanted to check o ut books immediately! " www.voya. com Least Favorite Booktalk Style 5 0 ~ 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 35% o +--'---- First Person Excerpt There were onl y t wo hosts who ind icated th ey wo uld no t invite the booktalker for a return performance. Both were publi c librar y YA speciali sts who had presented booktalks and were less than charitabl e to the visiting booktaLkers in their comments. A compari son of their sur veys and those of the teens they hosted indi ca tes how differentl y adult s and teens ca n view the sa me booktal king session. Both hosts li sted the first-person as their least favo rite style and the di scussion as their fa vorite style. Both groups of teens, however, predominantl y chose the first-person booktalk as their favo rite st yle. Perhaps the teens' pos iti ve res ponse to the visiting booktalkers and that style made the hosts uncomfo rtabl e abo ut their own booktalking abiliti es. BOOKTALKING-AN EFFECTIVE READING INCENTIVE ACTIVITY The final questi on for the hosts was if they considered booktalking an effecti ve reading incenti ve ac ti vit y with tee ns. Onl y t wo of the 180 hosts sur veyed, both cl ass room teachers, indi cated that they did not think booktalking was an effective reading incentive acti vity. The o ther respo nses were affi rmati ve. Novice and veteran booktalkers ali ke enti ced their audi ences, both teens and hosts, to meet new YA books and authors. Several host teachers noted that they co uldn' t wait to read the books. Others observed that they had no idea that there were books like these publi shed specifi call y fo r teens and that they planned to start reading YA titl es. An 11th grade Engli sh teacher commented that the books "became instant favorites, as there is a waiting li st to check them out of the librar y medi a cente r." A librari an obser ving a booktalking session in a 9th grade Engli sh cl ass stated that the "students were excited and wa nted the book before she even fini shed the booktalk." The hos ts, mos tl y librari ans and teachers, with a few school administrators and youth group leaders added to the mix, observed booktaLkers in acti on- introducing YA literature in an entertaining mann er whil e success full y interactin g with teens. The hos ts observed a reading incenti ve activit y that cl earl y was effective in engaging the hi gh school teens. Subsequent e- mail s from librari ans in t wo of the host school s no ted that the booktalked titl es, as well as the simil ar titl es the booktalkers had recommended on an annotated book list handed out to the teens, had waiting lists. One www.voya.com 44% 37% Discussion o Teens Hosts of these librari ans was cl earl y delighted that teens who had not heard the booktalks were coming to the library for a copy of the handout and to add their names to the waiting li sts. The teens were even overheard booktaLking amongst themselves. BOOKTALKING BOTTOM LINE Older teens rarely hea r booktaLks, but when they do, a major ity of these teens are avid li steners and the books int roduced are wait- li sted in their hi gh school cl assrooms and librari es. Hi gh school level teachers are as unawa re of the wealth of leisure reading YA literature for their student s as are the old er teens themselves. Based o n th e o ld er t ee ns' ve r y ev ident lac k of kn owledge abo ut books th at are writt en fo r them, it is essenti al that YA librari ans and others who work with hi gh school age teens read, recommend, and booktalk teen t itles that will appeal to thi s older group. We need to be sharing our enthusiasm fo r upper level YA books and the aut hors who write them. Botto m line-booktalks enti ce older tee ns and anyo ne else who is within hearing di stance to read books for pure enjoyment. Booktalkers can share their ent husiasm fo r YA titl es by taking on the persona of a book character, sharing an exciting event from a book, or reading a cli ffh anger excerpt. Booktalks can take pl ace in a structured setting, but informal booktalks happen anywhere-in the hall ways, in the stacks of t he library, in the teachers' lounge, in the lunchroom, on the bus, in the local bookstores, and yes, even in the hi gh school cl assroom. Where booktalking happens va ri es greatl y, but chances are you will recogni ze an avid booktalker- he/she is the one with a book in hand and cl ea rl y can' t wa it to talk about it. . Ruth Cox Clark is a Department of Library Science Associate Professor in the College of Education at East Carolilla University in Greenvi lle, North Carolina. She teaches children's and young adult li terature courses as well as writes professional booktalkitlg books and loves to booktalk with teens alld anyone else who will listen to her talk about books. She also reviews for VOYA and Library Media Connection. You can find her on her blog at ht tp://MadChat terYA. blogspot.com or contact her via email at c1arkr@ecu.edu. February 2010 VOYA I 7 9 COPYRIGHT INFORMATION TITLE: Listening to Librarians and Educators Talk Back SOURCE: Voice Youth Advocates 32 no6 F 2010 The magazine publisher is the copyright holder of this article and it is reproduced with permission. Further reproduction of this article in violation of the copyright is prohibited. To contact the publisher: http://www.scarecrowpress.com/