Fromthe ideas presented below, select two ideas that you haven’t ever triedbut that might work in your teaching context. If you’ve used all theideas, discuss your experiences with two of them. Feel free to, instead, discuss ideas not on the list. Explain why you like them and how youmight go about implementing each idea.
Total # of words minimum: 150.
1. Give a review (can be oral) of the book to convince others to read or not read it.
1. Tell/Write about the most interesting/important/exciting part of the book.
1. Read aloud an interesting/exciting/well-written part of the book. Perhaps, change your voice (e.g., accent, high/low, excited, sad) at various points while reading aloud.
1. Do a Readers’ Theater performance based on all or part of the book.
1. Role play the story or parts thereof.
1. Demonstrate something you learned from the book.
1. Use the knowledge gained from the book to do something. Explain how the book helped you.
1. Design front and back covers for the book, with a drawing on the front and a summary/blurb on the back. An alternative to drawing would be graphics, photographs, words, color designs, collages, and combinations of these.
1. Design a bookmark to suit the book. It can strictly be visual or it can contain words. A variation on this is for students to create a bookmark that on one side lists at least five of their favorite books and the other side has any type of art students would like to design.
1. Construct a model of an important object or scene from the book.
1. Paint a mural/draw illustrations/do a cartoon version of the book or of one part.
1. Students create a mobile from a coat hanger, etc. The mobile can display information about the book, key ideas (or characters or events), and reactions to / ratings of the book.
1. Create a collage to illustrate the book.
1. Design a poster to advertise the book.
1. Draw/use a map to show important places/routes in the book. Explain why they are important.
1. Draw a mind map or similar graphic organizer to represent what happens in the book.
1. Do a flow chart/story board of the events in the story.
1. Create a timeline of events in the book, perhaps with some text to help people understand the events in the timeline.
1. Do “Book in a Bag.” Students read a book, decorate the outside of a paper bag to go with the book, and put various book-related items in the bag. Students present their bags to groupmates. Boxes, large envelopes, etc. can be used instead of a bag.
1. Do “Submarine Sandwich Books,” adapted from http://www.education-world.com/a_lesson/lesson/lesson109.shtml. Various aspects of the book are represented by different items that students use to make their sub sandwich. For example, the bread at the top can be the title and the bread at the bottom is the author. The sauce can be what the reader liked most about the book. Various other ingredients can be the plot, character, setting, and words learned. The moral of the activity: We’re hungry for books!
1. Design a “quilt” (made on paper) with nine squares. The squares will be labeled 1-9 with the first three numbers going across the paper then the next three like this:
1 2 3
4 5 6
In each square, tell something about the book.
Square #1 = an event in the beginning of the book
Square #2 = an event in the middle of the book
Square #3 = an event in the ending of the book
Square #4 = who the main characters are and how you know they are main characters
Square #5 = who the minor characters are and how you know they are minor characters
Square #6 = what the climax of the story was
Squares $7-9 = optional, e.g., a drawing of a scene from the book, keywords/expressions/dialogue from the book, a short bio of the author, asummary of the book, a rating of the book, or use another idea from oneof the other ideas in this list.
Onechange that I will make is to have the students put an illustration orborder on each quilt square. I will also encourage my students toaccessorize their squares with buttons, ribbons, glitter, etc. I findthat students enjoy being able to tap into their creative side and have acenter in the back of the room that has all of these supplies availableto any of their works
1. Compare the book with a movie/tv version of the same book.
1. Read the same book in another language, e.g., if you speak English and are learning Spanish, read a book in English first and then in Spanish.
1. Read a different version of the same book, e.g., read a comic book or an abridged/simplified version and then read the unabridged version.
1. Read another book on the same topic and compare them, e.g., a biography and an autobiography of the same person.
1. Compare the book with another you have read of the same genre, e.g., mystery, by the same author, on the same topic, or with the same theme. This is a type of text-to-text connection. It gives students experience at the skill of making comparisons. Students might use a Venn diagram or other graphic organizer to do the comparison.
1. Don’t do anything; just get another book and start reading it.
1. Tape record an important segment of the book with the necessary introduction. The segment can be abridged in order to make it more interesting to listeners. Sound effects can be added.
1. Create a book-on-CD for younger children. This gives Ss practice in speaking fluently, with variation, and clearly. Remember to ring a bell or use another sound to indicate when pages should be turned. Other sound effects can also be used. Attach a picture of the reader(s) to the book, so listeners can put a face to who is reading the book.
1. Look for websites related to the book and/or the author. When found, these websites can be shared with others via a class list or a post-it note in the book. Many authors nowadays have websites or webpages.
Theycould then rate the websites by a rating scale and choose the bestsites related to their book to share with the rest of the class on thebig screen. These links could then be placed on our classroom websiteto share with the world.
1. Listen to an audio version of the book.
1. Write a poem inspired by the book. Remember that there are many simple poetry forms, such as acrostics.
1. Take a well-known song, nursery rhyme, etc. and make new words for it based on the book. Perform your song, etc. for others.
1. Write an online review of the book for a website such as Amazon.
1. Write a newspaper article, with a headline, about the events, characters, or information in the book. The students could choose any portion of the newspaper to write for the class newspaper. For example, instead of a regular news article, students could write a want ad or an editorial. The article could go in a real student publication.
1. Tell about the character(s) you like best and why.
1. Summarize and retell the story.
1. Copy interesting words and expressions into a notebook. Do things with these words and expressions, such as define, illustrate via drawings, give examples, use them to communicate with other people, or create a crossword puzzle with them.
1. Imagine you are a character in the story. Would you have done things differently? If you were the character in the present day, how would you behave differently?
1. Imagine that a character in the story became a student at your school. How would they dress? How would they behave? How would students, teachers, you, and others react to them?
1. Write an outline of a sequel to the story. A shorter form of this would be a prologue that briefly tells what happened later to the book’s characters and perhaps, aspects of the setting, e.g., a village where some of the characters lived.
1. Write an outline of a prequel to the story.
1. Use three words to describe the book, e.g., engaging, surprising, gripping.
1. Write a short note to the next reader of the book, e.g., you might want to explain something that will help the next reader better appreciate the book. These notes will stay in the book to be read by all future readers. Perhaps an envelope can be attached to the inside front cover of the book to hold these notes. Similarly, a library pocket can be pasted onto the inside back cover and note cards can be placed in the pocket. Student could write a note on one of the cards and slide it in the pocket. Also, post-its can be used. The next reader can also write, to agree, disagree, or add to what earlier readers wrote, so that there’s a dialogue about the book attached to the book.
1. Write letters to one of the characters or from one character to another. If possible, find someone else who read the same book, and do an exchange with them. They reply as to character to whom you write, and you reply as the character to whom they write.
1. Write a letter to the author(s) of your book. And, nowadays, many authors have websites (their own or their publishers) to which you can send a letter/email and have some hope of a reply.
1. Teachers can give this list to students and let them choose which activity(s) they will do. Perhaps the activities could be weighted according to how much time would probably be required to complete a particular activity.
1. Dress as a character from the book and explain the link between the clothes, the character, and the rest of the book.
1. Keep a reading response journal. Once a week, use the journal as a place to write about what you have read. Classmates and/or the teacher read and respond to your entries.
1. Create an ABC book based on the book you read. You take each letter of the alphabet and come up with a significant word that begins with that letter. This could be a character’s name, a place, or a word pertaining to a theme or emotion that takes place in the book. Then, students create some sort of book with one letter on each page with an explanation of the word that they chose. Each page should have some sort of illustration or decoration.
1. This is not an after-reading idea, but it accomplishes a similar purpose. While students are reading, they can have brief conversations about what they are reading with the teacher or with peers. These conversations can include how they like the book so far, what they have liked most, anything that they found difficult and how they coped with those difficulties, Whey they plan to finish the book, whether they plan to read anything similar (on the same topic, in the same series or genre, by the same author), or students can read aloud a short portion that they think others will find particularly interesting.
1. This next one doesn’t really fit this category, but it’s a great idea for building a love for reading. Barb Burfisher, who works with junior high school students, suggested it. Her description deals with a book that was read aloud to her as a child, but the idea works for silent reading as well.
Iasked students to bring or just talk about a book that made an impacton them at any time in their lives. I modeled a book that was meaningfulto me from when I was very young called “Cry Baby Calf”. The book made alasting impression on me, not because it was great literature, butbecause it represented a special time I spent with my grandmother, Florence. I would sit on her lap and she would read to me, making thebook sound so interesting and fun, even though she must have read ithundreds of times. In my classroom, as students shared about theirspecial book, others wanted to join in and talk about special, meaningful moments in their lives, as well. This helps students get toknow something special and personal about each other.
Part II - Language Learning Strategies ).