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/

Comments

Post a Comment

Please post your thoughts, ideas, reactions!

Popular posts from this blog

Six-Word Memoirs

Image
I am a member of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) and subscribe to their Voices from the Middle middle school level publication. It gives me tons of innovative ideas for my classroom and helps keep me up-to-date on best practices in the world of  middle school Language Arts. Just recently, one of their articles  gave me the idea of implementing the Six-Word Memoir into my classroom. You can get the ReadWriteThink lesson plan the article referenced here . According to legend, Ernest Hemingway started the six-word memoir after he was challenged to write a six-word novel. He came up with, "For sale: baby shoes, never worn." Inspired by Hemingway,  SMITH magazine launched their six-word memoirs online in 2006 and challenged readers to submit their very own six-word memoirs through contests. (The goal is for students to utilize their words carefully and powerfully because they only have six words to express or describe their life story, current state of m
Read more

Catalytic Questioning in The Classroom

Image
A few days ago I was reading the  Psychology Today  article, "Use Catalytic Questioning to Solve Significant Problems" when I was suddenly hit by a eureka-serendipity-like moment. I was not searching for any teaching strategies, but instead for enjoyment when I realized that the brainstorming strategy the article provided could be applied in the classroom. Although the article was written with the business world in mind, I could clearly see that this could be an innovative and groundbreaking strategy for students to use in the classroom. If you've ever experienced students having difficulty forming questions, brainstorming, being innovative, being original, creating new ideas, then this could be the strategy for you. The article's author, Hal Gregersen, relates how he has used a "systematic approach" to brainstorming for the business world that has consistently proven to be reliable and to help team members create and innovate solutions to problems. As
Read more

Back-to-School Ready!

Image
As all teachers can relate, the last few days of my vacation were not spent daydreaming, basking in the sun, or sleeping in. Instead, I was knee-deep in preparing my classroom for opening day. And as many  teacher-nerds can attest, back-to-school prepping is not something I dread, but instead it is something I look forward to at the end of every summer. In this post, I would like to share how I set up my middle school classroom as well as some organizational and decor tips. If I were to describe my philosophy for decorating and organizing my classroom in just three words, I would say it is practical, functional, and affordable. While having a theme is cute and easy on the eye, it is not who I am. If you look at my classroom, you will notice that I do not follow a specific theme, I use all the colors of the rainbow, and there are no motifs: Having a color scheme is awesome, I mean, I use color schemes when decorating my home. However, when it comes to my classroom, I like to t
Read more