Teachers need to give book talks first to let students know what might be interesting to others and to let them know the appropriate length of sharing time. Sometimes, though, no matter how much modeling is done for students, the students are still reluctant to share or they get stage fright and forget everything they've seen and heard the teacher do to prepare them for their own sharing time. In this event, prompts might be helpful. Of course, teachers can always verbally prompt students, but we want to wean them from dependence on us. As we do that, written prompts could be very helpful to students.
Teachers can make charts to hang in the area near where kids come to share their books.
At the primary grades, the chart could have the following types of short and easy statements. With some time left in the summer, you might want to think about making your chart to encourage students to share in more meaningful, directed ways. I even had the opportunity to meet Mary Miehl, one of the technical support people with T-Net, in Cleveland, along with many of my other internet buddies there in Cleveland and in Columbus. Tomorrow I'll be with some Texans in Dallas. When the week is done, I will have shared 4-Blocks with approximately 1,500 educators.