* B O O K W I N K * Video Booktalks for Kids, Teachers and Librarians

#1
10 Technology Enhanced Alternatives to Book Reports
http://theapple.monster.com/benefits/articles/8529-10-technology-enhanced-alternatives-to-book-reports
I have made it my mission as a media specialist to encourage teachers to eliminate boring assignments that require no critical thinking skills. The author, Kelly Tenkely, a technology teacher, provides 10 practical alternatives to traditional book reports. Her conclusion captures the essence of the article and her philosophy:
"Technology brings interest back into reading and helps students continue to find reading that they enjoy while providing the teacher with feedback about student reading comprehension. These are great alternatives to book reports that will keep your students from ‘readicide’. Most of the above tools have the added benefit of being able to be embedded into a classroom blog, website, or wiki. All student projects can be collected, organized, and viewed in one place. It doesn’t get better than this!"
I like that Tenkey embraces technology to engage students rather than fighting against it. Her 10 alternatives include having students create online posters, comics, book shelves, podcasts, and interactive sites where students can respond to each others book reviews. I enjoyed the BookWinks site with examples of video booktalks. I plan to work on a similar project with one of our English teachers. In addition, Tenkey’s example of podcasting book reviews reminds me of a project I observed with another media specialist. Students researched controversial issues and then created audio podcasts of radio interviews where pairs of students debated the pros and cons of their issue. The students did solid research and presented persuasive arguments—and they were excited about doing it. That they got to add music and sound clips was an extra bonus to them. The assignments had real life value to the students because they selected topics meaningful to them and presented the information in a format they found valid, and fun

* B O O K W I N K * Video Booktalks for Kids, Teachers and Librarians