The Art of the Virtual Book Tour

By Kathryn Caprino and Erin Knauer

Teaching 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. 
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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. 
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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. ​

The cover page of a digital book tour.

Pathway #5 during which students think about what characters have taught each other in the text and share their ideas on a linked Google Doc.

The homepage from which students can select various pathways.

The text set pathway where students can find other texts that will help them answer the essential question.

How do I create a virtual book tour?
Here are some steps to follow when creating your virtual book tour. ​​

​STEP 1. Select and Read a Contemporary Early Chapter Book or Middle Grade Text

Select and read a contemporary early chapter book or middle grade text that will interest your students. It’s not that picture books cannot be used; there just may be more content to explore in early chapter books or middle grades texts. If you’re looking for ideas, the National Book List recently issued its 2021 National Book Awards for Young People’s Literature.

​STEP 2. Decide Upon an Essential Question

This essential question should help students answer big picture questions that prompt reflection and can be applied to their lives. For more tips on engaging students in inquiry, see this Middle Web piece.

​STEP 3. Create a 3-5 Minute Book Talk for Your Students

Use an online tool (e.g., YouTube, Animoto, Flipgrid, etc.) to create a 3–5-minute book talk for your students in which you discuss key questions raised in the text, a few major plot points (without giving away the ending), any connections you made from the text to your life, your review of the text, and what types of readers will enjoy the text. ​

​STEP 4. Design a Mixture of Pre-, During-, and Post-Reading Activities

Design a mixture of pre-, during-, and post-reading activities that can immerse students fully in the text and that can be done completely through digital tools. For example, students can complete during-reading questions on a shared Google Docs form, illustrate their ideas on Padlet, or share a review of the text through Goodreads accounts after reading. ​

​STEP 5. Find Complementary Texts

Find complementary texts (e.g., books, short films, articles, etc.) that students can read after the original text that will also help them answer the essential question. ​

​STEP 6. Decide on a Platform to Build Your Digital Platform

Decide on a platform to build your digital platform. We recommend Google Slides, but digital notebooks and other digital spaces can work well, too.​

​STEP 7. Start Building Pathways

Create a welcome page for the book’s cover image and a homepage that will link to all the other pages. Build out the pages using the resources (e.g., book talk, activities, etc.) you have already created.​

​STEP 8. Test Your Tour

Send a link to a colleague to make sure that digital book tour links are all live. ​

​STEP 9. Invite Students to Travel

Invite students to engage in your digital book tour. ​

​STEP 10. Reflect on Your Digital Book Tour

After students travel through your digital book tour, reflect on it and update as needed to meet students’ needs and attune for any technological challenges. ​

​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!

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​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. ​

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