Questions about book reports... Do you have your students do them? What grade level do you teach? How often do they do them? (monthly?, marking period?) What format do you follow for the report? Thanks so much in advance for your imput!!!
I require students to do 1 book report for each marking period (6 weeks). The students are allowed to choose how they will present the book report.
When I taught 5th, we had the students turn one in every three weeks. I think it might have been a bit much for them... I called them book projects and did them in a different way each time, always including a rubric so they knew what they HAD to include. I tried to make them fun projects...I can email you a few examples if you PM me your email address.
I have my students do a "book report" once a week, but they are not very involved at all. It's basically for me to check that they are reading. I have tons of different worksheets that basically focus on characters, beginning, middle, end. A few have some problem and solution. I teach 2nd grade and want to give them an introduction to what a book report is.
My 5th graders are required to do one book report a month. They have to pick a different genre each month, and they create a little book for each one. The little books are stored in a little cereal box (you know, the ones that come in variety packs?) for the year. During the first few days of school we wrap the boxes and design the fronts to say "Jack's Little Genre Library."
I had my 6th graders do book reports, but I tried different versions. We did "cereal box" book reports, where they designed a cereal box to go along with their book. We also did "sandwich" book reports, where they were required to do different things for each part of the sandwich. Both went over pretty well.
I don't really do book reports/projects with my students. I would much rather that they have an authentic task like writing about or discussing their book.
I do the same thing, the second half of the year for my first graders. It's not for a grade, and they only "have" to do one per quarter, but my higher students really got into it!
I do Independent Reading Response Journals, one for each quarter. My students select their own books, then respond to prompts about the book. They may pick up to 4 prompts per book. Each prompt is worth 3 points if it is well written. At the end of the quarter I collect the notebooks and read their responses. At the beginning of the year the point total for earning an A is 48 points and it goes up to 72 points for our last journal. In addition, we have projects with the books that we are reading as a class. One of my favorites is a memory box where the students collect 12 items that would be important to the main character and attach a tag to that item telling what it is and why it would be important. They decorate the box to reflect the theme of the book.
