how to write a book review for middle school

Reading, Writing Print full size And plot, building writing skills, Reading comprehension, Story, title and author, writing about characters.
How can I find a good book?   Where can my students post a book review?   What websites have ideas for reading and writing projects? The Internet is a great place to share ideas about books students are reading. Get students involved with writing book reviews and sharing them online. Read Spagetti Book Club report on the success of this project. This article quotes a report on the success and effectiveness of the book club. You may also wish to skim the entire SRI report titled The Organization of Learning in Community Technology Centers: Learning with Technologies in Six Communities (March 2001). Many classrooms have developed their own Book Review pages to share their student work. Check out Book Reviews from Planet 5th from a group of fifth graders. Some teachers and libraries find building web pages overwhelming or just time consuming and may wish to use an online project or organization to post their reviews. Use the following resource to learn about writing good reviews: How to write a book review from Kids On the Net Key to Icons Website accepts student book reviews Exceptional quality website Book Review Websites Use the following websites to locate and share book reviews. They focus on book reviews by and for kids. Most access book reviews from students. All Levels Book Hive One of the best book review sites for kids. Find a book or write a review. Included both professional and student reviews. Book Browser Barnes and Nobles areas to explore. Also explore authors and popular books. Book Hooks Lots of great book reviews and reports and an easy way for students to submit their own. Kid Lit Reviews by children and young adults. Kids on the Net Book reviews by.
Why do book reports strike terror in the hearts of most students? Simply, writing a book report is not easy. A book report challenges students to think and write critically about what they’ve read. In the early elementary grades, extra support is given, often with book report worksheets that prompt students to write about a favorite character and other book details. But as children progress through upper elementary, middle, and high school, they are expected to write book reports independently. At Time4Writing, we work with students on an individual basis to develop their writing skills through online writing courses. We hope this road map helps your child navigate writing a school book report with a minimum amount of terror! How to Write a Book Report Before you write, read. There’s no substitute for reading the book. Choose a book you’ll enjoy—reading should be fun, not a chore! Read with a pen and paper at your side. Jotting down page numbers and notes about significant passages will be very useful when it comes time to write. Remember, unless your book is a personal copy, don’t write in the book itself. Use a Book Report Outline After reading the book, you are ready to start the writing process. In writing a book report, or any writing prompt, you’ll find writing easier if you follow the proven steps of the writing process: prewriting, writing, revising, editing, and publishing. In the first step, prewriting, you’ll plan what you want to say. An outline is a great prewriting tool for book reports. Start your book report outline with the following five ideas. Each idea should correspond to a paragraph: 1. Introduction 2. Summary of Book 3. Book Details: Characters 4. Book Details: Plot 5. Evaluation and Conclusion In organizing your thoughts, jot down a few ideas for each of these paragraphs. Reminder: Every grade level (and teacher) has different requirements for.
Download the PDF version of this lesson plan. Introduction If you love to read, at some point you will want to share a book you love with others. You may already do this by talking about books with friends. If you want to share your ideas with more people than your circle of friends, the way you do that is by writing a review. By publishing the reviews you write, you can share your ideas about books with other readers around the world. It's natural for young readers to confuse book reviews with book reports, yet writing a book review is a very different process from writing a book report. Book reports focus on the plot of the book. Frequently, the purpose of book reports is to demonstrate that the books were read, and they are often done for an assignment. A book review is a totally different task. A book review's purpose is to help people decide whether or not the book would interest them enough to read it. Reviews are a sneak peek at a book, not a summary. Like wonderful smells wafting from a kitchen, book reviews lure readers to want to taste the book themselves. This guide is designed to help you become a strong book reviewer, a reader who can read a book and then cook up a review designed to whet the reading appetites of other book lovers. Form: What should the review look like? HOW LONG SHOULD IT BE? The first question we usually ask when writing something is How long should it be? The best answer is As long as it takes, but that's a frustrating answer. A general guideline is that the longer the book, the longer the review, and a review shouldn't be fewer than 100 words or so. For a long book, the review may be 500 words or even more. If a review is too short, the review may not be able to fulfill its purpose. Too long, and the review may stray into too much plot summary or lose the reader's interest. The best guide is to focus less on how long to write and.
Homework Center – Writing Skills Book reports and book reviews are similar. Book reports tend to be a little more descriptive (What is this book about?) and book reviews are usually more persuasive (Why a reader should or shouldn't read this book). Both offer a combination of summary and commentary. They are a way to think more deeply about a book you've read and to demonstrate your understanding. Most teachers have their own requirements, and sometimes a specific format they expect you to follow, so be sure to check, but the following general elements of a book report or book review should be helpful. Introduction Here you want to provide basic information about the book, and a sense of what your report will be about. You should include: Title (underlined)/Author Publication Information: Publisher, year, number of pages Genre A brief (1-2 sentences) introduction to the book and the report/review. Body There are two main sections for this part. The first is an explanation of what the book is about. The second is your opinions about the book and how successful it is. There are some differences between reports on fiction or other imaginative writing and reports on non-fiction books. But for both, a good place to start is to explain the author's purpose and/or the main themes of the book. Then you can summarize. For fiction or other creative writing: Provide brief descriptions of the setting, the point of view (who tells the story), the protagonist , and other major characters. If there is a distinct mood or tone, discuss that as well. Give a concise plot summary. Along with the sequence of major events, you may want to discuss the book's climax and resolution, and/or literary devices such as foreshadowing. But, if you are writing a review, be careful not to give away important plot details or the ending. For non-fiction: Provide a general overview of the author's.