This presentation was share with elementary teachers at a recent workshop.

1. Alternatives to
Traditional Book Reports

2. What do Good Readers do?
Use strategies to figure out words
Choose to read
Re-read for information they need
Share the books they read
Predict what comes next
Make connections to their own life
Read often
Read a variety of genre
They have a list of what they want to read next
Aware of their own understanding

3. What’s the Goal?
• Celebrate the accomplishments of readers
• Promote and plan for future reading
• Foster the collaboration of a reading community
• Establish a reading culture

4. Book Reports
• Fail to motivate kids to read
• Lack personal significance
• Chore to write
• Painful for students to listen to
• Bore to grade
• Easy to copy

5. Alternatives

6. Book Commercials
• Advertisements - short, impromptu testimonials
• Goal - Provide students with a forum for sharing
the books they love
• Model - Teacher provides his/her own book
commercials
• Discuss - How to share enough information but not
too much

7. Book Reviews
• Authentic Opportunities to share with other
readers about the books they are reading
• Study professional book reviews and book jacket
blurbs - determine what information professionals
include when evaluating books
• Determine what makes a quality review
• Publish in formats that encourage conversation:
blogs, Destiny Quest

8. Class Blog
• Authentic Opportunities to share with other
readers about the books they are reading
• Comments on posts begins conversations
• Authentic Audience

9. Destiny Quest

10. Other Ideas
• Create book trailers - short video created by students
to highlight the key points of a book
• Create animated or stop-motion videos about a
book's plot - http://stopmotionmovies.yolasite.com/
• Create 3D interactive pop-up books - http://
www.zooburst.com

11. In a Perfect World, what
would a Reading
Classroom Look Like?