Anticipation guide, philosophical debates, & book talks

This year, my English teachers asked me to provide an activity, in addition to book talks, for their Honors students. I created an anticipation guide with statements related to the novels I planned on book talking. Students had to take a few minutes to agree or disagree with each statement. After reading the first statement to them, I had students split up, with agree on one side of the room and disagree on the other. Students then had to debate their points of view. Students had a ton to say, so we didn't make it through all of the statements, but I did tell them which statements corresponded with which books, in order to provoke interest, and then book talked those novels. It was a lot of fun AND intellectually stimulating.