Journal #8 A Book Report Your Students Will Love/ Nets-T 1 & 4

Journal #8 A Book Report Your Students Will Love

Ferrell, K. (2010). A book report your students will love. Learning Connections, 30. Retrieved from http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/201012#pg32

Nets-T #1

Nets-T #4

The author Keith Ferrell presents the thesis that students lose interest in reading when the same book report is required of them year after year.  Besides that, he presents the idea that written book reports don’t serve education any good when students don’t care, and teachers simply grade it, hand it back to the student, and it is never to be seen again. 

He then goes on to tell a personal story from his childhood that brought him to using book trailers inside his classroom.  First, Ferrell requires his students to read the book and then organize the important ideas as a storyboard using Microsoft Word.  Second, he has the students use FLICKR to gather photographs that help represent the ideas they want to portray of the book.  In using the photos from this site, students must cite and therefore they must also make a citation page in Word.  Third, Ferrell has the students use Windows MovieMaker and SoundzAbound to create the book trailers.  They must include and arrange photos, transitions, and sounds appropriate to their topic and book. 

In closing his article, Ferrell discusses how he has the student present the project to the class.  They have a classroom viewing day, giving the class the opportunity to give awards, reflect, encourage, and also, find interest in a book they never wanted to read before. 

Question #1: In what ways could this project be improved?

Answer#1: I think that using iMovie and iTunes would help give this project more creativity and ease for the students! 

Question #2: In what other ways can we help improve the student’s interest in reading?

Answer#2:  I think that ebooks are a great and innovative way to get students to read.  From personal experiences, paper books put a person to sleep and for some reason, are not interesting to include in our every day lives.