How many of us read a book and then create a craft project to show our friends all about what we read? I don’t, and I have yet to find anyone that does. Maybe those adults do exist but still why is it that I was under the impression that book report meant diorama or a puppet show?
So this year I am taking a leap of faith; having students read for the fun of it and share their opinion of the book – novel idea I know. So instead of a craft project, how about…
- Create a genre bulletin board where students can add a review about their book
- Have students read two books within a genre and do a Venn diagram to compare and contrast the two books? Or read two books by the same author?
- Blog about your book; reflect, ask questions, see if others have read it
- Create a wordle about the word associations you had with the book
- Write a Haiku about the book
- Use glogster to create a collage about the book and references in it
- Read aloud the most interesting part, trying to get others to read it and then explain why you chose that part
- Do a book talk with a partner or the teacher
- Prove to the class in 5 minutes or less that you really read the book
- Sell the book to your classmates, how can you get them to read it – written or oral – try this even if you did not like the book, can you still convince others?
- Act out your character
- Write a letter/email to the author (even if no longer alive). Tell them what you thought of their book.
- Blog about what you learned from the book.
- Surf the net looking for pictures of references made in your book
- Do a book review in the style of a movie critic – thumbs up or thumbs down
- Venn Diagram characters in your book
- Do an author study alone or with a partner
- Create a VoiceThread discussing your book’s message
- Pretend you are the author on a Voki and tell us about your newest project
- Search for reviews of the book on the internet and add your own review
- Write to a penpal about your book and why you chose it
- Participate in the Global Read Aloud Project
- Create a book trailer
- Video tape the book talk
- Use Shelfari to post the book and then explain why you chose to post it
- This idea comes from Mrs. Pilver – use a Voki Book Hook , so cool
Anymore ideas? My students will greatly appreciate them…
Pernille Ripp 
You have so many great ideas! I do something in my classroom called a Book Bistro. You could incorporate some of your list into this format. Read more about it on my blog: http://mrsbmg.blogspot.com/search/label/reading
What great ideas! One thing my class and I are going to try out this year is a site called Shelfari where the kids will be able to create their own virtual bookshelves and write reviews for their books. Others in the class will be able to comment on the books as we will have a private group. You can read about some of the other things we've done on my blog http://kcollazo.edublogs.org or see our work at http://collazocove0910.wikispaces.com
Thank you so much for sharing these great ideas. I love the idea of elevating the discussion in a book bistro and I cannot wait to check out shelfari. I just know there are better ways to engage students in books!
Thanks for the wonderful ideas. We did Voki book hooks this year.http://mrspilver.wikispaces.com/Book+Vokis
Thanks for sharing this. There are some new ideas for me to try.
I have a whole list of projects students can do on books instead of a report. Each project is worth between 1 and 5 points. They need to have enough projects to add up to 5, so they can do a 1 point and two 2 point projects, or one 5 point project, it really doesn't matter to me. Here's the link to the assignment. I like it because it allows kids to choose.http://mrslanik.tumblr.com/post/18013404993/independent-reading-project
These are excellent suggestions. I am always looking for alternatives for my teachers. Dioramas are just not cutting it any more!