Alternatives to The Book Report


I think I can safely say that gone are the days when students wrote book reports as a response to reading activity and prove what they have read. Thankfully, the teaching profession has evolved and realized that if we are to  prepare students for real-world writing, they need to be immersed in more qualitative tasks. There are just so many fun, interactive, and meaningful alternatives to the  old-fashioned book report, that to be hard-headed and continue to assign book reports just does not make sense.

This is why I have created this post; I want to share some authentic post-reading assessments as alternatives to the book report. Anyone can write a book report without having actually read a book. But to be able to engage in deeper and more authentic learning, students need to prove that they possess the analytical and inferential skills necessary to truly understand a book. Instead of being able to describe  the who, what, and where of a book, it is much more important to be able to answer the why and how. 

Some book report alternatives that I have already thought of are:
  1. Write a "Dear Abby" letter from the point of view of a character in which he/she  seeks advice from "Dear Abby" for a conflict/problem he/she faces in the book. Provide advice to the character from the point of view  of "Dear Abby."
  2. Produce a book trailer advertising your book. The trailer's mood and tone should reflect that of  the book.
  3. Write a book review  on goodreads.com (no confirmation by email required).
  4. Produce a YouTube book talk in which you discuss and give a review of your book.
  5. Write a literary analysis examining one or more of the themes of your book; write a literary analysis examining one or more of the characters, etc..
Not only  are these alternate assignments more fun, they are more rigorous and give a clearer picture of student learning; this is what I would call a win-win situation. And although they are more fun, they do require more effort and deep thinking than the  old-fashioned book report. It's almost like we would  be tricking students into learning.

Here is the NCTE English Journal article that inspired my search for authentic independent reading assessments: "Fifty Alternatives to the Book Report" by Diana Mitchell. This article has tons  of more ideas for meaningful independent reading assignments.

Once September rolls in, I'll be adding more independent reading resources (e.g., assignment directions; rubrics; student samples, etc.) as I implement them in my classroom, so stay tuned. I think our students will forever thank us!

References
Abhi, Sharma. Books HD. Digital image. Flickr.com. N.p., 27 Aug. 2006. Web. 30 June 2015. Creative Commons License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

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