Thanks to Lorie Steed for sharing this neat lesson she did with her HS media assistants. The lesson could easily be adapted for any grade level. My students just finished a long-term project on book reviews and they did such an excellent job that I think these could be posted to Goodreads (not requiring them to do this although one student was so proud of his he said he might). First they had to do the "Book Review Research" assignment which was to read 5 reviews of a book they were familiar with so they could get a sense of how reviews are written. They used Goodreads and Amazon reviews for this. Then they had to read a book of their choice from the library and take at least 20 notes on their reactions - in whatever format they wanted - sticky notes, Google Doc, etc. This was so they could track their reactions and have raw material for the review. Then they wrote the review. Today I'm having them print their final reviews & am going to display them alongside the books they reviewed. I'd also love to share with you the reviews they wrote because I was so impressed with them. It took a lot of hard work on their parts & some individual conferencing on a rough draft for them to get this far, but they got there! (I'm attaching a sample of one that just amazed me & that I got permission to share - but honestly they were all very good and I would say of publishable quality.) Here is a sample: "Carrie by Stephen King: I will now and forever be obsessed with his work 5-5 stars When Carrie, a high school girl with telekinetic powers, is pushed over the edge by her peers, she'll be sure they regret their actions and get what's coming to them. The book Carrie is listed under the fictional horror genre but in my opinion, the book itself is not all that scary. While reading I felt sad more than anything because of the way the main character’s mother treats and raises Carrie." For the full review, click here.
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Thanks to a partnership with Bookmarks of Winston-Salem, Davidson County Schools was able to bring in NC author Megan Shepherd to area high schools April 4th and 5th. Mrs. Shepherd is a full time author from Brevard that has published 8 books with her 9th book being released in 2020. The media coordinators from Ledford, Oak Grove, North, South, Central and East hosted Shepherd in their media centers, where the author held a writer's workshop to English classes and book clubs on April 4th and 5th. Students learned about the history of young adult literature as a genre, tips for successful writing and they also participated in some writing activities using prompts. This was a great opportunity for students in our district to meet a real author in person! Students also had an opportunity to purchase her titles at a discount courtesy of Bookmarks. |
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April 2019
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April 2019
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