How2Day: Types of Elementary Book Reports

Reading is an important skill that is developed all through the elementary school years. Usually monthly, teachers assign book reports to verify that students have read a book. In order to make the process fun or at least more tolerable, teachers vary the presentation. Book reports are either presented orally or in written form. An important skill that students learn when creating book reports is to organize the information into a viable presentation.

To evaluate a student's understanding of the basic components of the story, a lower elementary teacher might employ the Build a Book Report Sandwich idea. The "sandwich" is made of several parts: bread, lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise, cheese, and ham. Each of these components, on a different colored paper that the student cuts in the pre-drawn shape, represents the title and author of the book, a summary, main character traits, climax of the story, and a plot summary. The last piece of bread is an illustration of the story. An online variation of the same activity is found on Scholastic.com. This type of book report helps the teacher check comprehension. In addition, when the reports are displayed on a bulletin board, other students can look at the "sandwich" and perhaps be motivated to read the book.

Elementary school children love to dress up. Dressing as a character from the book they have read is a fun activity that develops oral speaking skills. Teachers who give this kind of assignment must be certain to include guidelines as to what to include in the oral presentation, including representing the character's traits either orally or by acting them out. Demonstrating the character's relationship to the student and to other characters in the book might also be encouraged, in addition to a summary of the story including who, what, where and the outcome of the story.

For upper elementary students, the class might be divided into groups that are each assigned a specific book to read. Each group would read a book from the same historical period but on a different reading level, determined by ability. Groups work collaboratively to write a resume for a character from their group book. In order to accomplish this higher level assignment, students must first be familiar with the historical period and also understand the properties of resumes. The Resume Workshop from Purdue Owl is a helpful resource.

Before doing this activity, students should be proficient in identifying character traits. Once these skills are learned, the students, working as a group, will use pertinent personality traits and information about the historical period to write a resume for the book character. All resumes can then be put together and presented in book form.

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