Welcome back to the Beanstack Blog's Product Spotlight series! Here, we share updates on new features and offer insights into how Beanstack can support your reading goals. Whether you are already using our tools or are interested in creating a reading culture in your community, this series is for you.
When we introduced Book Talks with Benny, it was a game changer for reading accountability. Now, Benny the Bean is going beyond accountability to give you insight into student engagement with independent reading.
Book Talks for Reading Engagement Insights
Instead of simply verifying whether a student read their book, Benny can now invite students into a fun, open-ended conversation designed to uncover whether they had a positive reading experience.
For Educators
The ability to add Engagement Book Talks to almost any reading challenge promotes deeper student engagement with reading and allows more students to enjoy a conversation with Benny. Plus, they’re a great tool for identifying students best suited for reading competitions like Battle of the Books.
- Within Beanstack, admins and teachers can add book talks to Reading List Challenges, Logging Challenges (Minutes or Books), and Bingo Challenges.
- Engagement Book Talks checks conversations for answer length, details, and positive sentiment, and includes positive flags to indicate when a student has gone above and beyond.
- Admins can view all conversations and evaluation data in one place.
Benny saves educators' time by summarizing conversations and rating the probability that the student is positively engaged with their book. This allows teachers and librarians to identify opportunities for enrichment and intervention.
For Readers
On the reader side, Book Talks are designed to be a fun, engaging experience that inspires students to deepen their connection with the books they're reading. Through interactive, chat-style conversations, students reflect on what they've read, share their thoughts, and earn rewards, making reading even more meaningful and enjoyable.
- Benny starts a chat when a student logs reading, marks a title as complete, and is enrolled in a challenge with Book Talks enabled.
- Readers can pause conversations with Benny and resume them later.
- New achievement badges are available for readers who complete a Book Talk within a Book Talks Challenge.
Book Talks for Reading Accountability
Book Talks with Benny builds on our existing Reading Integrity Suite, which takes a unique approach to accountability that doesn’t require demotivating quizzes or extensive grading.
Book Talks can act as a tool to assess the veracity of students’ reading logs without replacing any critical work performed by educators. Benny initiates a friendly conversation and maintains transparency by letting students know the conversation will be shared with educators.
Beanstack’s Commitment to Using AI Safely and Responsibly
Our engineers designed and trained Benny with extensive educator input and real-world testing to ensure Book Talks are meaningful, age-appropriate, and safe. Rest assured that this feature will never collect Personal Identifiable Information (PII) or pass it on to a third party.
We recognize the responsibility of introducing Artificial Intelligence (AI) into our platform. Before beginning any work with AI, we established ethical guidelines to ensure that our use of AI is human-centric, transparent, and safe. For more, read our AI Ethics Statement.
Get Started
Book Talks with Benny is available now for all schools and districts with Premium Beanstack plans. Schools and districts must opt in to use this feature. If you’re not a Beanstack client, contact our team for a custom demo or join our upcoming webinar with School Library Journal to see Benny in action.