Do you find yourself slogging through book reports that your students write?  I remember thinking if I had to read one more paper with plodding sentences I was going to throw up. . . or at least throw the papers across the room.  But then something occurred to me.  I was assigning those ridiculous book reports.  You know the ones.  Read a book and write a 2-page summary.  Make sure to include the high points of the story.  Tell what you liked best about it.  Oh yes, that makes for scintillating reading, doesn’t it?

I’m not sure when I wised up to this, but it might have been about the time that Los Angles Unified published their own book called Scrip and Scrippage.  Even the name had an amazing ring to it.  What ever did Scrip and Scrippage mean?  I still don’t know.  This book, now over 30 years old, still holds a place of honor on my bookshelf.  It’s an 11 ½” x 8” book, so it’s oblong.  It has a soft brown cover, brown ink on beige paper.  It evokes memories of change for me.

For no longer did kids have to do rote reports to let me know they had read the book they were reporting on.  They could choose from a dozen fabulous projects.  Each one included detailed directions.  They also included more than writing.  Sometimes art was involved, or math, or social studies.  The reports were often cross-curricular.  Some of my favorites were the projects that had the students. . .

• create personalized stationery and then write a letter from the protagonist describing a significant incident in the book.  The kids would go crazy for this project.  The stationery inspired them to write wonderful descriptions.  The project is just as valid today, especially since the stationery can now be created on a computer.
• combine poetry and summary-writing skills.  Kids had to create a diamante poem about one of the characters.  It was quite a task to get that description down to 16 words.  These kids had always written very long summaries, so this was a good way for them to learn to edit themselves.
• complete an employment application for one of the main characters in the book.  I used to have my students use this when they read animal stories.  I would have them fill this application out as if they were one of the animals.  Some of my more creative students would do things like use animal paw prints for the applicant signature line.

There are many types of creative book reports.  There are lots of sources on the web.  TCR publishes 50 Book Report Ideas (TCR 3948) filled with many creative ideas.  Do yourself a favor.  Find a new way for kids to express what they have learned so that you can take joy in reading what they have to say.