WRITING BOOK REPORTS - GRADES 1 & 2
AUTHOR: Y. St. Peter
This plan involves first and second graders in the basics of writing 
book reports.  It seeks to involve parents in the weekly/bi-weekly 
activity.    
STEPS TO SUCCESS IN WRITING BOOK REPORTS:
1.  Teacher reads a book to the group, discussing main idea, details, 
characters, setting, illustrations, etc.
2.  Reread the book 2 or 3 times, until you are comfortable the students 
know the book very well.  Have the group do oral retelling of the story 
in sequence as often as time will allow and/or attention spans will allow.
Call to the students attention how what one person thinks is an important 
event in the story may be considered quite unimportant by others.  Maybe 
it's a matter of opinion.
3.  On the chalkboard or chart paper, model writing a book report on this 
now very familiar story.  Use a very basic book report form that includes 
the important parts of a book report.  Discuss why each part is important.
4.  Next, read another book to the group, again rereading and discussing 
story elements until you are comfortable that the students are very 
familiar with the story.
5.  Create a simple book report form on the chalkboard or on chart paper. 
(Should include: title, author, some of the characters, story retold in 
sequence.)
6.  Have the students direct you in completing the form by providing the 
information needed to satisfy each element.  When a student tells you to 
write something specific in a given location, ask "Why does this need to 
go here?"
7.  Repeat steps 4 - 6 two or three more times, until you feel the students 
are getting good understanding of what is expected in writing a book report.
8.  Repeat steps 1 and 2.
9.  Pass out copies of a book report form that your students are now 
familiar with.  Review the process with the group, referring to the form 
on the paper frequently.
10. Assign writing a book report on the last book you read for this purpose.
Allow those students that are ready to proceed independently, to go ahead 
and do their book report.   Work with those that will struggle with the 
reading and spelling, etc. in a smaller group situation, if possible.  
(It's great to have parent volunteers in the room at this time!)
11.  When everyone has completed their book report, go over their reports 
as a group, allowing individuals to read from their own reports - such that 
3 or 4 students will read their information for each step in the report.
You might want to caution the children that their information may not 
be exactly like the others, but that is desirable, especially in the 
'retelling' parts.
12.  Repeat steps 8 - 11 one or two more times, or until you are 
comfortable that your group is now ready to select a book, read it 
independetly of the classroom teacher, and hopefully will get help 
from home, such that on 'Book Report' day, the majority of your students 
will be able to proceed and complete a book report on a familiar form, 
independently.
13. I have included a copy of a letter you may wish to send home 3 or 4 
days before you assign the first independent reading for writing a book 
report. I recommend that you send a copy of the book report form you will 
be using to the parents, also.  This will give the parents a good idea of 
what you are doing and a feel for your expectations as well.
The book report form that I am including with this plan is one I devised, 
and I found that my average and above average first graders were very 
successful with it after mid year. Therefore, I feel confident that the 
majority of a second grade class would also be successful.
Date_______________
             BOOK REPORT
MY NAME IS______________________________________________
TITLE OF BOOK_____________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
AUTHOR'S NAME____________________________________________________
SOME OF THE CHARACTERS:
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
RETELL THE STORY:
FIRST_____________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
NEXT______________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
THEN______________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
LAST______________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
DRAW A PICTURE ABOUT YOUR FAVORITE PART OF THE STORY.               
January, 199_
Dear Parents;
The students and teachers in Room 8 have chosen Wednesday to be our 
"Book Report" Day.
We will be trying to do 1 book report per week to supplement our 
reading program.
In order for your child to be successful with this project, he/she 
should become very familiar with the book of his/her choice.  Encourage 
your child to try to choose a book that is easy enough for him/her to 
read much of it .  I would like to suggest that maybe you could read the
book to him/her, then do shared reading, taking turns reading pages, then 
let your child try to read it independently.  Discuss the story and 
pictures, noting details, background, sequence of events, etc.  Show 
your child where the author's and the illustrator's names are.  Help your 
child retell the story orally in sequence.  Help your child  remember to 
bring the book to school on Wednesday.  
Enclosed is a sample of a book report form we will be using.
So far - the kids and I have enjoyed this project.  We are all very 
enthused about it and I expect that the level of success will influence 
the level of enthusiasm.
We appreciate your cooperation and look forward to taking home some very 
interesting book reports!
        Sincerely;
        Ms.
--- Renegade v10-05 Exp
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