Responding to Literature in the Middle Grades
 Book Report Alternative: Character and Author Business Cards
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=143
When students make business cards for characters in books they've read or for the authors of those books, they're forced to think symbolically in order to create a short, simple text that represents the target appropriately—providing a title, relevant images, and other pertinent information.
 Book Report Alternative: Comic Strips and Cartoon Squares
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=195
Students tire of responding to novels in the same ways. They want new ways to think about a work of literature and new ways to dig into it. By creating comic strips or cartoon squares featuring characters in books, they're encouraged to think analytically about the characters, events, and themes they've explored in ways that expand their critical thinking by focusing on crystallizing the significant points of the book in a few short scenes.
 Book Report Alternative: Creating Careers for Characters
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=245
What if one of the characters in the book you've been reading was looking for a job? This question is the focus of this activity which bridges technical writing and literary analysis by inviting students to become characters in a novel they have read, find a job for those characters, and write application letters and resumes for their assumed persona.
Book Report Alternative: Summary, Symbol, and Analysis in Bookmarks
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=135
Students love to make bookmarks on the computer because they get to share their ideas with other readers at their school. Teachers love the project because it gives students practice in summarizing, recognizing symbols, and writing reviews—all while writing for an authentic audience.
Book Reviews, Annotation, and Web Technology
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=137
Integrating technology, research, and the language arts, students work collaboratively on this lesson reviewing books and creating hypertext on the Web. Reading, writing, purpose, and audience are synthesized, resulting in a challenging and creative student project.
Doodle Splash: Using Graphics to Discuss Literature
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=190
 Taking advantage of students’ natural tendency to doodle, students keep a doodle journal while reading short stories by a common author. In small groups, students combine their doodles into a graphic representation of the text that they present to the class while discussing their story. Students also do individual graphics and, ultimately, write group essays analyzing the author’s themes.
Found Poems/Parallel Poems
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=33
Using a descriptive passage from a piece of literature they are reading, students will write found poems. Then they will underline key words, and using these key words, and following the format in their found poems, they will write their own parallel poems.
Reading and Writing Workshop: Freak the Mighty
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=41
This novel study of Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick includes the modeling and practicing of specific reading comprehension strategies, vocabulary and word study, a figurative language activity, and a selection of final projects which can be used for assessment with the accompanying rubric.
Story Character Homepage
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=50
A project for literature circles or class novels to develop understanding of a character. In groups students will look at examples of homepages on the Internet, note what elements most contain, and use them as models to create a homepage for their chosen character.
Graphic Map
http://www.readwritethink.org/student_mat/student_material.asp?id=39
The Graphic Map assists teachers and students in reading and writing activities by charting the high and low points related to a particular item or group of items, such as events during a day or chapters in a book.
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