Collaborative Book Reviews

Fourth graders at Central and third graders at Alsup created book reviews, posted them on blogs and read book reviews written by other students. They left comments for each other, read comments left to them, and left comments to respond to those left for them.

This was my first collaborative Global Learners project with Kathy Hughes who teaches fourth grade at Central. We kept it relatively simple for our first project. We decided to focus on reading and student blogging.

My students were really excited about blogging! They loved using the laptops, reading book reviews, reading comments, and leaving comments for each other. They also learned a lot about blog etiquette. Students wrote interesting, thoughtful comments to each other and responded well to comments left for them. It was a good project to start with, not being too complex, and incorporating reading and writing skills. It took longer than we planned and because the third graders were not able to leave comments for the fourth graders until the blog was adjusted and it took students a long time when using the computers for the first time for a project like this.

Throughout the rest of this school year students will be completing more book reviews to be posted online. The classes can continue to read each other’s book reviews and leave each other comments. Please visit our blogs and leave us comments, or visit with your students! We'd love to get more comments about our book reviews!

Alsup Third Grade Book Groups
Central Elementary Book Reviews
Lesson Plan

Book Groups Blog

~cross-posted at: http://mstaylorsthirdgradeclass.blogspot.com/~

My reading group created book reviews after reading a chapter book with a book group. The goal of the assignment was for them to enjoy reading fiction, discuss the book with others, and create a book review after reading so they could synthesize the experience and bring closure to the 10-week long project. In order to make it more meaningful and exciting, they published their book reviews online on a book group blog, and some also created podcasts which I posted on my classroom website. The students loved it! They put a lot of time and effort into their book reviews and enjoyed putting them online. They also enjoyed leaving comments for other students in the class on the blog. Please visit our book groups blog and read some book reviews. There is also a quiz to take. Also you can listen to some podcasts on my classroom website. We'd love for other students to leave us comments on the blog and take the poll also! Have you done anything like this with your students? Any suggestions for improvement? Thanks!