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As all teachers know, reading is fundamental skill. It is also important for teachers to make sure that students understand and comprehend what they are reading via assessments such as book reports. But how do we as teachers ensure that students develop a passion for reading? The strategy that we stress here at the Teachtopia network is to teach reading and therefore assigning book reports via genres.. For example, if a teacher were to only read and assign classic literature to his or her students, there are always a few student who would simply turn off to this type of fiction and classic genre. Instead it is highly recommended that teachers teach and encourage students to read multiple genres throughout the year.
I know many people who never really cared much about fiction, but as children discovered
biographies and science texts that led them to other non-
Teaching reading via genres could done by presenting the class with a book report schedule that Starts in September and ends in June and every few weeks the students have to have read a book from a specific genre.
Here are some book report categories:
Historical Fiction example: Little House on the Prairie
Classic: Black Beauty
Award Winning: Books that won the Newbery, Caldecott, Corretta Scott King Award
Science Non-
Sports fiction: example: Any book by Matt Christopher
Humorous fiction example: Superfudge
How-
Autobiography example: The Art of The Deal by Donald Trump
Biography example: Harriet Tubman
Poetry Anthologies example: Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein
Mystery example: Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys
Suspense example: Any book by Christopher Pike
Adventure example: Indiana Jones
Comic: Baby Mouse by Jennifer and Matt Holm
Animal Fiction : example: Ralph S. Mouse
The above genres are the major categories you may use of when creating your book report schedule.
As a classroom teacher you get to not only explain and give examples of the genres, but also introduce new vocabulary to help students gain interest in each genre. For example, if your class is assigned Animal Fiction, the concept (personification) should be discussed. Every student will relish the idea of an animal or object being seen or acting like a human being within the context of a story. Classic examples in literature would be the Wind and The Willows or Mickey Mouse.
While , Teachtopia.com has provided you with examples of books for each genre listed
at the site, you as a teacher still have the challenge to make sure that students
acquire a book, read it, and then do the in-
Here are some strategies for all of the above...
First make sure that the student and parent gets multiple copies at the beginning
of the year of a book report schedule. Have both parents and students sign a tear-
Another strategy is to ensure that students have a familiarity with your classroom
library. Please see our Teaching Tips Podcast #1 for strategies on how to build
up that library. In addition to the classroom library, if your school has a library,
it pays to befriend the school librarian so you could get class time in there for
students to check out books. We also recommend having a public library librarian
be invited into your class early on in the year to most often simply re-
Once you help the students acquire their books for each genre, it is also important to touch base with them and their progress while reading. some teachers not only record the books they chose, but also make a point of having the students do a reading record (literally count how many pages they read each week). other teachers simply call the student up during the period and orally touch base with them regarding their progress. of course it also makes sense to schedule some class time for sustained silent reading where all students are to read their assigned genre book.
For the class assessment, since most the students are doing different books, a book report format that works for many books and not just one is the best idea.
We have listed a few resources to help you in this endeavor, but here are some written response guidelines that could work for all fiction book reports.
A book report could have many possible sections for the students to work on, but here are a few that have withstood the test of time:
Write a descriptions about the main characters.
Identify the conflict and how it was resolved.
Give your opinions of the book do you recommend it to others? Why?
Describe the setting and answer both where and when the story took place.
Create an alternate ending..
When looking for grade level books for book reports, don’t forget Teachtopia.com's famous grade level reading list. We recommend sharing this grade level reading list to parents so they know that there kids are reading grade level appropriate books.
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