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There is a lot of information on these pages about book reports. I will break it down into sections to make it easier to understand. You can read the entire page, or you can use the links to jump to certain sections:

 


General Rules

* The extra credit book report will replace your lowest language arts grade. (Click here for more information on extra credit.) The extra credit report must be turned in two weeks after interims go home for it to appear on your report card.

* Reports may be written (extra credit for Written Expression) or done orally (extra credit for Reading). Written reports take much longer because you must handwrite everything you would say in an oral report without leaving anything out. You must use correct spelling, punctuation, and paragraphs in your written report. (See below)

* You must have your book with you the day you give your report or the report will not be graded.

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You CANNOT do reports on the following types of books:

* Choose-your-own-ending books

* Non-fiction books (Guinness books, Sports books, "How-to" books, etc.)

* Books under a 5th grade reading level (K, 1st, 2nd, etc.)

* Books based on a movie or TV show (like Holes, Series of Unfortunate Events Books 1-3, Lizzie McGuire, Goosebumps, Animorphs, etc.)

* Books less than 100 pages of writing (pages with pictures don't count)

* Books that have several short stories in them

* Biographies or autobiographies (books about a person's life)

* If you are not sure whether or not your book is OK, check with me BEFORE you start reading it. Don't wait until the day of your report to ask if it's OK to read.

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VOCABULARY

* You will also be required to write down any unfamiliar words while you're reading. For the Vocabulary part of your report, you must have:

  • 10 words from the book that you do not know (these are your "vocab words")
  • the page numbers that the words are on
  • the definitions of each word.

* If you give 10 words/definitions, you get all 10 points for this section.

* Even if you choose to do your report orally, you still will write the vocab words on paper.

(See rubric)


PARTS OF THE REPORT

** Your report MUST have EVERYTHING listed below **
* TITLE/AUTHOR
* GENRE (type of book -- comedy, suspense, adventure, fantasy, etc.)
* SETTING (where and when the story takes place)
* POINT OF VIEW (POV) - who is telling the story

* First person POV = character tells story

* Third person POV = author tells story

* PROTAGONIST (main character)
* ANTAGONIST (against the main character)
* SUMMARY (tell what happens in the 5 parts of the plot listed below)

*Introduction – just tell what happens in the beginning --the characters, setting, etc.

*Rising Action – starts as soon as the problem occurs. This is when the story starts to get interesting. (This will be the longest part of your report. Most of the action is in this part, so it will be several pages in your written report.)

*Climax – tell how the problem is solved (most exciting part of the story, close to the end of the book)

*Falling Action – after the climax, tell what the characters do (not very exciting because the problem has already been solved)

*Resolution – how the story ends.

* THEME (lesson learned, or main idea)
* RATING and RECOMMENDATION - (What would you rate it on a scale of 1-5, and would you recommend this book? Why/why not? To whom would you recommend it?)
* VOCABULARY WORDS -- words you didn't know from the book, the page numbers they were on, & their definitions. (See vocab section)
* ORAL READING -- everyone must read a paragraph aloud in front of the class, even if you do a written report. You will be graded on how well you read, how much feeling you use, and how well the audience can hear you.

* See the Book Report Rubric for exact information on how you will be graded (tells how many points each section is worth).

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EXTRA CREDIT

* You can do as many extra credit reports you want. Every extra report you do will replace your lowest grade (written reports count for WRITTEN EXPRESSION and oral reports are extra credit for READING).

* If you look up the definitions to more than the required 10 vocabulary words, you get 1 point for every 2 words and definitions over 10. (For example, if you turned in 12 vocabulary words, definitions, and page numbers, that means you did 2 more than you had to. So those 2 extra words count as 1 extra point. 4 extra words would count as 2 extra points. 6 extra words would count as 3 extra points.)

 

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