Why I Assign Book Reports

We all know kids need to read more.  Frequent reading and analysis is how we improve our reading comprehension. But what do you do when your students have finished reading their books? Do you require them to write a summary? Take a quiz? What about assigning a book report?

I do all of the above. By assigning a multitude of ways for my students to prove their reading skills, I have a pretty good idea of which kids aren’t reading. My students are required to do the following:

• Read a chapter book within a 2 week time period
• Write a summary using a summary paragraph frame
• Take an AR quiz
• Complete a book report project

So why do I assign book report projects? It gives my students another chance to think creatively and show off their artistic side while still retelling the story elements, analyzing the character development, and identifying the theme. Could they do the same thing on a worksheet or test?

Perhaps, but which is more fun and hands-on? Projects encourage the parents to be involved in their children’s education and homework. As an added bonus, my students enjoy the projects and usually take pride in the presentation of their project. I should mention that my book reports are entirely done for homework. No part of the project is ever done in class. We don’t have the time or materials needed. Finding time to present along with a book talk is a challenge in and of itself.

Here are the projects I’ve used, or plan to use, this year:

• Board game
• Newspaper with 10 or more articles
• Pop-up book
• Trading cards for each major character, setting, and event
• Diary with 10 entries from the main character’s point of view
• 3-D Sensory Figure – identify what the character saw, heard, smelled, tasted, touched, thought, said, felt in their heart (emotions), and where they went. Each must be from a different part of the book. ***This is a great assignment to use when analyzing a person from history.
• Book Talk
• Story Elements Kite or windsock

Bottom line? Reading should be fun. Books should be shared. Assigning fun, yet challenging, book report projects can accomplish both goals and still be of academic worth.

What book reports have you used? Did you feel they were of value to your class?