Library Idea January 6, 2003

Book Report Alternatives! I am forever encouraging my English teachers, and others who require book reports, to use creative ways to assess how well their students have read and understood the book they choose for outside (independent ) reading in English class. I haven't yet solved the page-requirement problem, but I do have some ideas for more entertaining and thought-provoking book reports. Here are a few of my favorites:

1. Letter to the teacher: student writes a one page letter, no more than one-third is to be summary. The rest must a) select a quote and explain its significance and b) give the reader's opinion of the book so far and back it up with specific reasons.

2. Questions and answers: I always taught my kids the levels of Bloom's taxonomy and throughout the semester, we practiced writing questions at the various levels. This makes an easy book report to assign: students must write an answer one question at each level of the taxonomy.