Book Reports That Cross Content Areas

by Patricia Crist

This is an excerpt from "Book of the Month Reports," a description of a book report project presented in the August 2006 issue of Classroom Notes Plus.   Subscribe to Classroom Notes Plus to access the full article, which outlines a letter to parents, scaffolding strategies for before, during, and after reading, and a variety of additional book report options.

When seventh graders were studying geometric forms in math, we did "book report cubes" (or another geometric shape of the student’s choice—one student created a dodecahedron!). In math class, the math teacher helped the students create a three-dimensional cube or other shape out of paper, while in English class, we brainstormed what written information about each book would go on the cube.
We decided on three required sides: side one—book title, author, and short overview of the book; side two—names and description of main characters; side three—opinion about the book with reasons.

Student ideas for the other sides included:

• graphics/visuals pertaining to the book
• a time line
• plot diagram
• minor character names and descriptions
• setting

Because some students wanted to read nonfiction or biography for their cubes, we brainstormed ideas for those genres too. Nonfiction ideas included diagrams (one boy read a book about how to improve pitching, and included diagrams of what a player had to do to improve, as well as a comment about how each diagrammed suggestion had worked for him personally), a summary of the main information learned, and important facts.

Biography ideas included a time line of the person’s life, pictures, a list of stats (for sports personalities), awards or honors, and the main contribution(s) the person made to the world—one student, for example, had a side entitled “Why A Book Was Written About Her” for a biography of  J.K. Rowling.

The cubes were presented orally, then displayed for parents’ night, where they were well received. See the sample below, which shows a cube report on Lemony Snicket's The Reptile Room, complete with clay snakes, plus a door that opened to reveal more snakes.

 Eighth graders study the Civil War in social studies, so we did a Civil War book report just prior to the social studies unit. The first year, I started with an ALA list of recommended books, but now have a much larger bibliography for students to choose from, as titles were added, most by students. Favorites added by students include the following:

• The Lincoln Murder Plot (Zeinert), the true story of the conspiracy to topple the government by assassinating Lincoln, as well as the vice president and secretary of state
• Soldier’s Heart (Paulsen), about a young boy who enlists for the glory of fighting, but discovers the truth about war
• Nightjohn (Paulsen), a thin book for the reluctant reader describing the risks taken by slaves teaching/learning  to read and write
• To Be a Slave (Lester), a compilation of actual slave letters and journal entries depicting the capture, sale, and life of slaves
• The Last Silk Dress (Rinaldi), a well-researched historical fiction describing one girl’s efforts to collect silk dresses to make into a hot air balloon to spy on enemy forces.

The Civil War orals were arranged in chronological order as much as possible: causes of the Civil War and slavery, battles and leaders, and post-Civil War reconstruction. The social studies teacher helped the students and me decide where to “place” a book historically. Social studies and English classes were combined for the oral presentations, and notes taken became the basis for writing assignments in social studies class, as well as English class.

One essay assignment asked students to select three Civil War topics about which they learned the most. Ryan wrote, “One of the topics I learned about from the Civil War presentations was the state that the hospitals were in. They didn’t have any antibiotics; the doctors didn’t even wash their hands when they changed from patient to patient. Going to the hospitals was practically a death sentence. Since there was so little care for clean procedures, almost all of the soldiers that went into the hospital died of a bacteria infection rather than the wound which had caused them to be there." 

The social studies teacher reported later than the students who read a book on the Civil War scored better on the Civil War unit-end test than students in previous years who had not read a book.

A scientist biography report connected science and English classes. The format was similar to the biography report at the beginning of the year; students could, in addition, assume the persona of their scientist for the oral presentation.

I vividly recall a report on Albert Einstein, and “see” the presenter’s handmade cotton ball wig bobbing as she spoke. Two boys, who each read a different book on the Wright Brothers, presented together as Orville and Wilbur, taking turns to tell the story of flight.

Each student became the resident expert on a particular scientist in science class, where his/her expertise was sought when that particular scientist was mentioned in the science text. After the presentations, students wrote an essay, based on notes taken during the presentations, explaining what they had learned about any three of the scientists.

Patricia Crist, Glenbrook Middle School, Longmeadow, Massachusetts