If you want to kill your students’ love of reading, there’s no better method than requiring a book report (or other assignment) after they complete a book.
Author and former middle school teacher Kylene Beers tweets it best:
What’s the best thing to give a struggling reader when he’s finished a book? Another book. Not a test. Not a slice of pizza.
— Kylene Beers (@KyleneBeers) December 28, 2014
Although I don’t like to disrupt the flow of reading, or to intervene between the end of one book and the beginning of another, I do think it’s important that students record their completed books.
That’s where the KCP Finished Books Form comes along. A draft:
It’s a work in progress, but my goals are to (a) help students keep track of the books they’ve read, (b) help teachers keep track of what their students have read, (c) give me data about which titles are most popular, (d) let donors peek into what students are reading.
Ideally, and eventually, I’d like to build a dedicated website for students — sort of like a student-friendly version of Goodreads, which is too texty and adult-centered — where they can record completed books, make recommendations, and build relationships with other members of the KCP community.
Maybe that will happen in 2015?