by Clifford Morris61 Cures for Boring Book Reports
I believe that the primary use of reporting on any book is not to check up on someone or to give them a mark (although this latter procedure is often one of the main goals of the classroom teacher). What should be a fun and enrichment exercise is often boring, laborious, and monotonous. Instead, the objective behind reading, be in oral or silent, should be to get the reader to talk about books as a natural part of their day-by-day conversation. In other words, if the reporting on what one reads in a book is a necessary communicational skill, it can also become an important cultural vehicle through which the reader interacts with the author of the book.
The reporting process on books range from the casual to the formal. Extended written and spoken book reports have long been the bane of worthwhile reading in the classroom and within the home. Such reports often defeat the purpose of the teacher or parent, as well as any real attempt by the reader to develop the literacy skills of reading and writing, and appreciation of the written word.
Here then are my 61 cures for boring book reports
1. Hold a panel discussion when several students have read the same book or a group of comparable books.
2. Organize a pro and con panel made up of those who like the book and some who found the book uninteresting. Let one person represent the author. Try for an impartial chairperson.
3. Dramatize an incident or an important character in the story. The reader might relate the incident in the first person.
4. Make a public address (P.A.) announcement, to advertise the book.
5. Have individual conferences to help readers talk about favorite books.
6. Appoint a committee of students who are avid readers. Ask them to conduct peer discussions and seminars about books.
7. Hold a mock trial permitting the defendant to tell the story of a book of her / his choosing. Have those present to render a decision on its merit.
8. Reproduce an artist's interpretation of important scenes on slides or paper for the whole class to enjoy.
9. Make a brief oral talk limited to four (4) minutes.
10. Get the plot down to a succinct nugget. It takes practice to do this in one paragraph.
11. Conduct dialogs between several students revealing the style and story of the book.
12. Prepare a book jacket that illustrates the kind of book, as well as the history of the story.
13. Write a précis of the book.
14. Use the internet to compose an email message, trying to give the essence of the book in 30 words. Then, expand the email message into a 100 word comment.
15. Try your hand at a publisher's "blurb" in an attempt to sell the book.
16. Read aloud an exciting part, stopping at a strategic or interesting point.
17. Make a sales talk, pretending that your audience contains clerks from a local bookstore and that you want them to publish your new book.
18. Have questions from the audience, or let three other classmates act as challengers.
19. Make a comparison between the book and the movie version of the book.
20. Create a poster, advertising the book and any other texts composed by the same author.
21. Build a miniature stage setting to explain the most interesting segment of the story.
22. Design gown for characters, either in miniature or in life size.
23. Write a book review for a local daily newspaper or magazine, then send your review away for possible publication.
24. Make a rebus of a short story and try it out on your friends.
25. Write a movie scrip and videotape part of it.
26. If you read a "How to Make" book, bring something you made.
27. If it is a travel book, use an audio tape to record a brief dialogue about the locations as discussed in the book.
28. Write an original poem after studying a book of poetry.
29. After reading a book of poems, learn a verse, or read one of your favorite selections to the rest of your classmates.
30. Use pictures from a daily newspaper to describe to your classmates why you liked (or disliked) the book.
31. Explain how the book could be used in a social studies or in a science lesson.
32. Make sketches of some of the action sequences.
33. Describe an interesting character. Then, make that character "come alive" to your audience.
34. Write or tell a different ending to the story.
35. Introduce the most humorous incident of the book to the class.
36. Select a descriptive passage and read it aloud to the class.
37. List interesting and new expressions to add to your vocabulary.
38. Describe a scene to orient your audience, then show it in pantomime style.
39. Write a friendly letter recommending the book to a friend.
40. Give a synopsis of the story, but don't give away the climax.
41. Make a scrapbook as suggested by information in the book.
42. Construct puppets and present a show of an interesting part of the story. Videotape the puppet presentation.
43. If it is a geographical book, make a map, including on it brief information gathered from the book.
44. Have a friend who has read the story try to stump you with questions.
45. List 20 facts you learned from reading the book.
46. Write five (5) questions you think everyone should be able to answer after reading the book.
47. Dress up as one of the main characters in the story and act out that person's part as described in the book.
48. Broadcast a book review using the school P.A. system.
49. Write a note to the librarian suggesting why s/he ought to recommend the book to other students.
50. Review the book to another class within your school. Try to convince them that they ought to read the book.
51. Look up the biography of the author and briefly outline two of her/ his other books.
52. Make a model using clay, soap, or wood to illustrate a part of the book.
53. Construct a diorama or table exhibit to illustrate a phase of the story.
54. Dress paper dolls as characters in the book, for a bulletin board exhibit.
55. Prepare a chalk talk, or better still, use an overhead projector to visualize the main plot in the book.
56. Do an illustration for the story.
57. Make a mural to illustrate the book and get others who have read it, to help you.
58. Rewrite an incident in the book, simplifying vocabulary for one of the primary grades in your school.
59. If it is a science book, plan a scientific experiment or demonstration of what you learned from reading the book.
60. If it is an historical book, make a time line, listing events in sequence.
61. Use bristle board to make a 3 inch high cube and then have the student (s) draw a comic cartoon on the 6 sides of the cube to represent either the setting, plot, or some of the main characters in the book.
Note: The initial version of the above, containing most of the above items, was written by a Dr. Curtis L. Englebright, an associate professor and Director of Reading Services, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green.
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on Wednesday, 31 May, 2006