Book Report Writing Tips: Group Writing

Teachers could encourage the writing of book reports or any writing by allowing their students to find a partner to work with, or let them get into a group to do the task. Teachers know that work could be done fast if the students worked among themselves. It never failed. The students seem to draw inspiration and stimulate enthusiasm from one another to come out with good work.

This working in groups often establishes good working relationships among the students if properly supervised and guided. The teacher's role here is simply to moderate their activities and give guidance if they run into difficulties or get "writer's block." It would help if the teacher set some kind of rubrics (standards) for the students to observe to keep them working in the right direction to complete their activity.

Here are some ways to start these students with writing their book reports:

Brainstorm with a friend or their group to generate ideas for writing.

Elaborate on these ideas and organize them.

Read to get ideas from other authors.

Use a web, story map, or a chart to organize your thoughts.

Consider giving the elements of the story: the setting, the character, the problem, and the solution, if it is a narrative story they are writing about.

List as many topics as you can from the books you are planning to write about.

List appropriate facts and details from the book you are reviewing to include in your writing.

Read any article that would give you a glimpse of the purpose of the author in writing his/her book that you are reviewing and writing about.

Include setting, events and details.

Organize the content, and have in mind what you want your readers to get from the information you are writing about.

Use many descriptive words when writing your story.

Consider using appropriate dialogue where necessary.

Get ready to edit and revise work to further develop the story in a variety of ways.

Please consider these given activities as guides to start your students' writing among themselves. These ideas are not listed in order. Feel free to take ideas from the list that would be practical and useful to use for their work.