We are delighted to share two videos produced by The University of Sydney, in collaboration with the CBCA, as resource support for Shadow Judging reading groups.
Alyson Simpson, Professor of English and Literacy Education at University of Sydney, uses her wealth of experience and passion for children’s literature to present these 10-minute videos on how to enable productive book group discussions.
In the first video Alyson unpacks the process for dialogic or interactive talk around texts with young people. The video includes footage of a reading group using prompt cards with sentence starters to help some young readers enter the discussion and share their thoughts about their reading experience.
The second video reinforces these points for the facilitator by encouraging explanatory talk and exchange of ideas using several examples. In this way encouraging us to ‘get the discussion going’ and then carefully move out of the way to allow young voices to be heard.
Alyson has also created a Talking About Books: discussion board on Padlet for users to record their thoughts. We hope that these videos in are a helpful aid to ‘Talking about Books’.
In 2023 we intend to build upon this resource with further interactive modules on this critical topic.