Teacher of the Frickin' Year: Taking Book Reports to a Whole New Level

I've been posting a lot of books lately. You probably all realize by now that I love books. More than just loving books, I love my students to be well-read people.

Part of being a well-read person is to be exposed to literature that is beyond your actual reading ability. This is why we do read alouds each day. We do this to expose the students to content, vocabulary, syntax and stories that will broaden their comprehension.

I posted about this once before, but my class is really, really low this year. My students are smart and amaze me in many ways. When we started our Pebbles, Sand and Silt science kit, many knew the kind of rocks we were using and information about how rocks are formed before I even said a word. Many kids are multiplying numbers in their head (like 10's and 5's) when our math book will barely even touch that in the spring. However, as smart as they are about some things, they are really ridiculous when it comes to their lack of reading ability. Like, many are still reading at a level C or D. Our phonics based and sight word based patterned readers are BORING. This limits a lot of what I can do in terms of book reports and things, so I have come up with a brilliant solution. The take-home book project!

Should kids can't read well not be exposed to great literature? I think not!

I sent home a book list for the parents, with the assignment of reading one of these books aloud to their child at night over the course of two weeks. At the end of the two weeks, the students were to create a picture and write about the book and do an oral presentation. I am so proud, I thought I would share their results! The kids presented their projects today and they were just wonderful! They all have a much broader understanding of genre and literature, can speak to their understanding of a new book and had a
wonderful parent-child bonding experience during the read aloud process.