By Kathryn Caprino and Erin KnauerTeaching and learning during COVID-19 has changed the way many of us and our students have encountered books. No matter the format, we have been committed to engaging our students with meaningful literacy experiences. Some of us created virtual libraries for our students during remote learning, and others referred students to author websites with read-alouds. In this blog post, we, a literacy teacher educator and a future early childhood teacher, share one way to build on the ever-present technology tools constantly within our students’ grasp: the virtual book tour. What is a virtual book tour? A virtual book tour is a digital tool that guides a reader through a text via a series of pre-, during-, and post-reading pathways. Why use virtual book tours? Purposefully, a virtual book tour explores a book’s storyline in depth, offers questions throughout, and encourages students’ reading of similar books. Designed with an essential question in mind, virtual book tours allow students to think critically about big picture questions. These book tours can be used with a whole class, during book clubs, and/or during centers. What does a virtual book tour look like? Whereas there is no one way a virtual book tour can look, here are some sample screen shots of parts of a teacher’s virtual book tour for When Stars are Scattered by Victoria Jameison and Omar Mohamed so that you can get some ideas. How do I create a virtual book tour?
Here are some steps to follow when creating your virtual book tour.
You’re On Your Way Now that you have some ideas about digital book tours, we wish you the best as you create your own! We would love to see the digital book tours you create! The authors would like to give credit to Laura Carr, who shared her virtual book tour with us. Kathryn Caprino is a CLA member and is an Assistant Professor of PK-12 New Literacies at Elizabethtown College. She blogs frequently at Katie Reviews Books and can be followed on Twitter @KCapLiteracy. Erin Knauer is a junior Early Childhood Education Major and Music Minor at Elizabethtown College. She excitedly looks forward to having her own classroom and continuing to keep up with the latest educational research. FOR CLA MEMBERS
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