Not Your Mother's Book Report-
From the desk of Christie…
More than likely we have all in some point had to create a book report. With the shifts in Common Core we will be seeing many changes in the types of assignments our students are asked to complete in school and independently. As parents we will be guiding children through these assignments and in order to do that we must be familiar with these new expectations.
One shift that particularly interests me is in English Language Arts/ Literacy. This standard places an emphasis on students “writing to sources”. This means using texts to support and provide evidence of careful analyses, well-defended claims, and clear information. This is NOT the book reports we have been accustomed to.
The Standards expect students to be able to answer questions that can only be answered from reading a text and reading it carefully. Students will not be able to rely on background knowledge or prior experiences as much as they have in the past. Students should be able to answer a variety of text dependent questions through speaking and writing. Soon the questions about the main character and setting will not be as important. They will still need to be referenced, but instead we need to help our children dive deeper into these texts. They need to be able to look into complex texts and use what they have learned to answer deeper questions.
I think of my daughter’s recent first experience with a book report. If you are the parent of child that may not be the most proficient reader, you may feel as I did. When this assignment came home with my daughter, my first thought was that of dread! Next came anxiety. Being adamant that this was NOT my assignment; I found it hard to take a step back and not “get the ball rolling” for my daughter. She pleaded that she had no idea where to begin. My comment was, “Surely this is not your first book report”. But in essence this was her first written assigned book report.
Thankful that I had read most of the book along with her, we began to have a natural conversation about the book. Things our discussion included were:
A brief discussion of the main character: I prompted her with, “Pretend to describe Turtle as a friend you met over the summer and you want your old friends to meet and like her as much as you do. What would you say to them?”
This easily led into discussion of the setting: “How is where Turtle lived throughout the story different from where you live?” Details flowed freely in terms of comparison.
In engaging in this natural conversation with another person, my daughter easily discussed events and big ideas from the story. I pointed out, that she had just created a book report; she just hadn’t written it down yet. She had been given the opportunity to Read, Think, and Respond. A look of relief washed over her and she then set out to complete her task. Her first version was heavily laden with dialogue from the text and we had to regroup. I used the questions “What is the author’s big idea from each of the sections?” “Why do you think the author is including this information?”
She set off again and when she returned a while later she asked for help with grammar and spelling for her rough draft which I graciously offered, careful not to omit or change content, all the while thinking, “This is not my work, this is not my work”.
Was it the pristine work of art all teachers indulge in? Absolutely not. Will she get an “A”? Probably not, since she failed to include many things about the setting of the story which her teacher required. But that’s okay because my daughter practiced engaging in meaningful conversation about a book she enjoyed reading. She also practiced thinking and independence as a reader and writer.
Hopefully I provided her with transferrable tools she can use in any class. As educators, aren’t these some of our main goals? In the reality of many classrooms with time constraints, required skills instruction, comprehension instruction, not to mention interruptions from the intercom, many students are not warranted time to participate in such conversations.
Now What?
What types of assignments can we use to help our students make these shifts especially in independent reading assignments? As parents and educators we need to give our students as many opportunities as we can to Read, Think, and Respond to texts. In her book The Book Whisperer, Donnalyn Miller discusses several practices for teachers to consider. She discusses a traditional practice and offers alternatives that are clearly aligned with our new standards. Some of her alternative practices include; Teaching readers, not books (my absolute favorite), Book Talks, Book Commercials, Book Reviews and many others.
When assigning tasks for students or talking with our children about what they are reading, don’t think of it in terms of a book report. They should not be trying to prove to us they have read the book. Instead help them focus on how their thinking has changed or what they can now prove BECAUSE THEY READ THE BOOK.