100 Novel Ways With Book Reports

Decker, Isabelle M. (1969).  100 novel ways with book reports.  New York: Citation Press.

I won't detail all 100, just my favorites. Numbers refer to the original number of each technique.

1) Roll the Presses:  students writes and edits the front page of a "newspaper", including news, human interest stories, editorials, letters to the editor, ads, etc.  May be accomplished via computer or by pasting up text/graphics on a sheet of artist's sketch paper.

3) Biographies in Sound: After reading a biography, each student writes a radio script that includes background, character, achievements, failures, friendships, and philosophy. Alternately, can be written as a dramatization.

5) Out of the Mouths of Puppets: several students who have read the same work collaborate on writing a script and performing a puppet show.

7) I'm a Character: each student impersonates a character from a book, presenting a first-person review of experiences.  The character may disagree with the book's author.

9) TV Special: students write scenes for a short TV script based on a text, then a master script is compiled and the performance rehearsed or taped.

14) Posters: each student designs and constructs a poster to promote the reading of his/her book by combining a short review with illustrations and lettering.

15) Quotes:  after completing a reading, students peruse books of quotations and select one applicable to characters, plot, theme, locale, or era.

16) Regarding assignments relating to a country or geographical locale, students pretend they are travel book authors asked to speak about their experiences in a given country.

20) Around the Campfire:  the stage is transformed to a campfire (using dim lighting, fake logs, sleeping bags, a faint strumming guitar, etc.).  A discussion of a book ensues.

21) A Grueling Grilling: four students who have read the same book assume the parts of the author, a literary critic for a magazine, a literary editor of a newspaper, and a student who is chairing a symposium on the author's work.

24) Who Is It?  After reading various short biographies, each student prepares a short 200-300 word summary of the person's accomplishments but avoids using the subject's name.  The class reads the bios and tries to guess each subject's identity

26) Words At Work:  the class collects reviews of a work, reads each, then jointly constructs a single review using the best phrases from the various reviews. 

27) Dear Pen Pal: Students pretend they have a pen pal in another state and has decided to send him/her a book.  In addition, each pen pal writes a letter detailing his/her impression of the book.  In a variant, these letters are exchanged among class members.

29) Successful Salespeople: each student plays the part of a salesperson trying to persuade others to purchase their book for a holiday gift.

37) Let's Debate: the class is assigned topics for debate.  The participants for one topic become the audience for another.

39) I Recommend:  If more than a dozen works have been read, the class pretends it is a literary club that each year donates six works to the city library.  To that end, the class is asked to whittle the readings down to the top six recommendations, with each student arguing in favor of their choices.

42) Spell Down: After a reading, each student writes five general questions on a 3x 5 index card.  The cards are shuffled and teams answer questions in turn, with anyone who misses a question sitting down afterwards.

44) A "club" is created, with a short booklet outlining officers, bylaws and procedures. The club "meets" regularly to discuss a topic of interest.

50) Negatively Speaking:  students write on the topic of "Why you should not read this book."

51) Fun with Book Jackets:  After scanning a selection of book jackets, the class composes one for the book in question.

56) Abridged Editions:  students pretend they work for Reader's Digest and are abstracting a work for an abridged edition.

59) Let's Listen: Students collaborate on preparing and delivering a lecture.

60) The Visual Treatment: a subset of students collects graphics and photos to accompany the "Let's Listen" technique above.

61) Ads:  Students create TV commercials, magazine or newspaper ads, or promotional posters for a work.

63) The Biographer's Art: in this variant of "20 questions", each student is assigned a brief biography on a different person.  Slips of paper with student names or numbers are drawn one at a time.  When a student's name/number is drawn, he/she stands in front of the group and the class gets 20 questions to try to ascertain the name and author of his/her work.  

66) Dear Diary: each student assumes the identity of a character in a reading and composes 2-3 150-word diary entries for that person.

68) I'll Quiz You:  two students read each article or book, each composes 10 questions and answers, and they pair off to quiz each other.

72) Interviewing the Author: students pair off, with one member of each pair assuming the role of the reading's author while the other assumes the role of an interviewer.

74) Best Sellers: Students are sent off on a scavenger hunt to obtain lists of best sellers in a given discipline.  When reconvened, they discuss what factors help make a book a best seller in that discipline.

76) Students scour the library for audio or video snippets from a given person.  The snippets are viewed or heard by the class.

82) Statements: each student writes a series of statements (they don't have to be related) about a work.  Chairs are arranged in a circle and each student reads his/her statements while the others try to guess the person, topic or reading.

87) Creative Comparisons: students read an old and a new article or book on a topic and then compare and contrast the two.

88) Guest Speakers: find another class that meets at the same time as yours, then coordinate with the other instructor regarding possible "guest speaker" activities (where students from one class present to students from the other class) throughout the term.

89) Bibliographies: students are given longer works they have written and work in class to generate an abstract or short bibliography statement.

91) Dear Sir or Madam: the class collaborates to write a letter that is actually sent to a person/author/company/etc.

93) Books That Changed the World: the class builds a list of seminal works on a given topic or in a given discipline.

94) In Manuscript Form: students imagine they are editors and the work is submitted to them in manuscript form.  They provide feedback and suggestions for edits.

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