[etni] book reports
- From: Renee Wahl <renew@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 04 May 2009 10:55:05 +0300
I'd like to share with you my latest book task experience:
In order to see whether the kids have actually read their books, I never ask
them to summarize the plot but to somehow relate what they read to themselves
or their experiences. For example, which person in the book would you like
most to be your friend/teacher/youth leader/husband/wife, etc and explain what
they did in the story to convince you of this.
Now that we are nearing the end of the year and the kids are pretty
rambunctious, I've decided to do something different. Especially in the late
hour classes, I've decided once a week to devote 1/2 hour to reading in class.
I'm going to try out Adele's ideas in my next class, but what I've done so far
is to ask the kids to choose their own books, bring them to class and read
silently for 20-25 minutes and then fill out a reading log in the form of a
table (Name of book, author, time started reading, time ended, page started,
page ended, 2-3 sentences about what happened). Their grade will be based on
how diligently the keep these logs. It will count as a test grade. That's the
theory. Here's what has happened so far:
1) Half the kids didn't bring their own books, but I was prepared for this. I
brought a boxful of books from the school library. The books were all levels
and I gave out the books to the kids (no choice) according to what I have
learned about their reading levels. I told them that they had missed out on
getting to choose their own books by not remembering to bring them to class.
Of course, if I saw that there was a terrible mis-match, I relented or let them
change the book next time, but in general they were stuck with their or my
choice, in order to teach them that they have to treat their choices seriously.
2) The first time I did the activity, there was lots of noise and it took them
most of the 25 minutes to settle down and understand that I was serious.
3) The second time, I brought in music - Mozart - and told them I would play it
in the background. There was still lots of noise and restlessness, but less
than the previous time: The results:
a) Groan, groan....
b) "Teacher could you please turn it down, it's giving me a headache!"
c) "I can't concentrate!
d) "Can we bring our own music?" - "Yes, next time bring your MP3's, your
mobile phones with earphones, or if you hate my music, bring earplugs"
e) One kid actually said - "Wow! I was able to read much faster with that
music in the background."
f) Then I explained that research has found that the music of Mozart
somehow meshes with our brain waves that amplify learning. I could see that
most of them were very skeptical. They still think that hard rock is what
meshes with their brains.
What I have learned so far:
1) Keep the books in a box at school. Do not allow the kids to take the books
or their logs home with them. This way they won't pull out the book that
they've been doing book reports on every year since the 5th grade, they can't
'forget' to bring their books, they can't copy the material from the internet,
etc. etc.
2) Most kids can't read more than 1-2 pages within the time period, but some of
the better pupils can read 5 or more pages. I walk around the room while they
are reading and help them with words they don't understand. In this way, it is
really easy to see who is reading at what level. I am shocked at the low
reading level of most of the pupils (and this is in an average to excellent
class). In some cases, I can help a very weak pupil ("I don't understand
anything.") get started by reading the first paragraph with him, asking him
what he DOES understand, and getting him to understand something about the
story so that he can continue: Who is the story about, where is it taking
place, what period in time, what's happening.
3) It's important to emphasize to the kids that they don't have to read the
whole book or even a certain number of pages. They just have to read. I'm
hoping that by the time we get to the end of the year, they will have gotten
caught up in the story, and maybe will ask to take the books home to read over
the summer. In the case of the weaker pupils, this might be the first time
they have ever read a book in English.
And for those of you who have ploughed through this very long message, here is
a wonderful website with hundreds of ideas for book tasks. Enjoy!
http://titania.stockton.edu/mrswendt/book-report-ideas/
Renee Wahl
.
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