[etni] Re: book reports
- From: "David Lloyd" <david@xxxxxxxx>
- To: "Etni" <etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2009 17:15:57 +0200
When I was in 9th grade (way back before the days of personal computers) I
decided to go one step further. Not only didn't I read the book, but I wrote
a book report about an imaginary book, an imaginary author and an imaginary
publisher. I was awarded a 98 for my efforts. One of the best imaginative
compositions I have ever written, I must say.
This wasn't because I was too lazy to read a book. I read at least three
books a week at the time. My mother would read a book and put it down. My
older sister would pick it up, read it and put it back down. Then it was my
turn. I remember reading War and Peace at the age of 14 and really enjoying
it. Reading was one of my passions.
But high school bored me. I sought real challenges and found none. If I
could fool the teacher into believing in my made-up book, then she deserved
to be had. And I deserved the mark awarded me. There seemed to be more
reason in doing this than in turning my private pleasure into a punishing
exercise.
And now I am on the other side.
We supposedly give book reports as a part of our effort to encourage our
students to read. I have been through it all as a teacher. I've given oral
book reports, in-class book reports, and all of the sadistic variations I
could think of in order to try and ensure that the student actually read the
book. You could say that I was now getting what I deserved, ever since
writing that imaginative book report.
But underneath it all, I really just wanted my students to enjoy reading
like I did when I was their age. But it doesn't work that way, does it.
I would be more interested in hearing ideas about how to infuse the love of
reading in our students, rather than know that they have really read a book
... just so that they can complete a book report. Will they be better
English learners in our knowing that they actually plowed through the book?
Any better than their writing an imaginative composition in English about an
imaginary book?
David
Maxine wrote:
>We have been having our students write their book tasks in class for years
> now. While it generally ensures that the writing is genuine (unless
> they've copied off the back cover and you haven't picked up on it) it
> does
> NOT solve the problem of
> 1) pupils having read the book in Hebrew
> 2) pupils having seen the movie instead of reading the book
> 3) pupils having read the book in 9th grade and possessing good
> memories
> 4) pupils having read a summary of the book on the Internet
> 5) pupils having gotten a detailed summary from a friend who read the
> book/saw the movie
> 6) several other possibilities that I haven't been smart enough to
> figure out.
> I regret to say that if this sounds a bit suspicious, well it is, and I am
> talking about even the "best of them", i.e. up to the English Speakers.
> Yes, many of them are reading, but many of them ARE NOT. When I read a
> book task I feel I am being had all too often.
> Anyone who has come up with a brilliant solution to the "having been had"
> feeling, I would love to hear it.
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