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| Overview |
 From reading texts to annotating Web pages, students rely on group cooperation and individual reading and writing skills in this research project. They will write a group book review, taking notes in their journals throughout the reading and discussion process, write short research papers as annotations for their reviews, and post them to the Web demonstrating the synchronicity of hypertext.
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| From Theory to Practice |
Patricia Webb suggests that using the Web supports “collaboration” and “opened up engaging discussions about audience, writing, and texts.” Dean Rehberger emphasizes the importance of annotation when he states, “We do, after all, read texts as hypertexts. Rarely reading a book from cover to cover, we use tables of contents, indexes, footnotes, and endnotes to make links from passage to passage, text to text, idea to idea. We collect and catalogue information—building bibliographies, resources, and libraries—and then turn around and deploy the information—paraphrases, quotations, and imitations—finding “originality” often in synthesis and syncretism. To this end, in my classes I use the Internet to emphasize these older rhetorical arts to create what I have come to call living texts” (194).
Emphasizing the connection among reading, writing, and Web page design, this lesson combines collaborative, small-group, and individual learning activities using literature circles and group investigations as suggested by Harvey Daniels and Marilyn Bizar.
Webb, Patricia R. 2000. “Changing Writing/Changing Writers: The World Wide Web and Collaborative Inquiry in the Classroom.” Pp. 123–136 in Weaving a Virtual Web: Practical Approaches to New Information Technologies, ed. S. Gruber. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.
Rehberger, Dean. 2000. “ Living Texts on the Web: A Return to the Rhetorical Arts of Annotation and Commonplace.” Pp. 193–206 in Weaving a Virtual Web: Practical Approaches to New Information Technologies, ed. S. Gruber. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.
Daniels, Harvey, and Marilyn Bizar. 1998. Methods That Matter. York, Maine: Stenhouse.
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| Student Objectives |
Students will
- read, discuss, and keep a journal on a book in literature circles.
- understand the elements of and collaborate on a book review.
- create a Web site based on their book review.
- learn to use parenthetical references and a works-cited page in a research paper.
- use the Internet for research and write an individual research paper.
- hyperlink their research papers (annotations) to their book review.
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| Instructional Plan |
Resources
- Assorted books for literature circles (to be read and discussed before this project)
- Handout of directions for journals to be used with literature circles
- Handout of directions for annotated book review
- Handout of directions for using Microsoft FrontPage®
- (optional)Literary Elements Map
Preparation
Prepare mini-lessons to review the elements of fiction and on the differences between book reviews and book reports.
Test the Story Map on your computers to familiarize yourself with
the tool and ensure that you have the Flash plug-in installed. You can download
the plug-in from the technical
support page.
Instruction and Activities
Group Reading and Discussion
- Select groups or let students select groups of 3 to 5 to work together. Often groups will be formed by the books they choose for their literature circles.
- Review the elements of fiction with students.
- Students read their book together and keep notes of discussions and of important things they notice in their reading journals as they read. Have them keep track of their feelings and opinions as they read and discuss the book. Ask them, too, to keep track of things such as main characters, conflicts, settings, and quotations that they think might be important; what they think the author’s purpose might be; and whether or not the author achieves his or her purpose. They will use these ideas when they write their book review.
- When they have finished discussion, the groups should read through their journal notes and put a check next to the details they want to include in their review. Be sure that they don’t give away too much of the story in their review.
Group Reviews
- After they have finished gathering details, the students will write a group book review.
- Look at some sample reviews. Most reviews name the title and author, include a brief summary of the book without "spoiling" the book for the reader, comment on the book’s strengths and weaknesses, and include a personal response.
- Explain the difference between a book report and a book review. Reviewers express their opinion of the book. It isn’t enough, however, to say that a book is good or bad. They have to support their opinion with explanations and specific references to the book itself, including quotations, rather than give a synopsis of the book.
- Working together, students write their first drafts using the details that they checked. (Remember that reviewers comment on the important parts of the book but do not give away too much of the story. Here is a sample book review of To Kill A Mockingbird and some ideas for ways to write one.)
- Once they have their final review written, they copy and paste it into a Web page using Web-authoring software such as Microsoft FrontPage®. This is the homepage that they will hyperlink to their annotations.
Group Annotations and Web Work
- Students will each write short research pieces on the areas they want to annotate in their review. Possible topics could include the author, the setting, connections with history, and other topics mentioned in their book. For example, if they were writing an annotated review over the book Night by Elie Wiesel, they might want to do research on the author, on Sighet in Transylvania (Wiesel’s hometown), on the Talmud, on the cabbala, on Zionism, on Auschwitz, on the Resistance, on the liberation of Buchenwald, or on any other topics they notice while reading.
- If desired, students can use the Literary Elements Map to gather additional details on the text they've read.
- Students use the notes that they took on topics for research while reading the book. They then read over their review to see which they included.
- Let them decide which parts of the review they want to annotate and assign topics to group members.
- Using the Internet and other library resources to research their topics, students take notes on index cards or in a note file on their computer. Be sure to have them get complete source information for all written sources and URLs of all Internet sites used.
- Students then word-process their research topics. Be sure that they use parenthetical notation for any quoted or paraphrased sections of their report and include a works-cited page at the end of their report, using an agreed-upon style (e.g., MLA).
- As a group, students review and edit each piece.
- Finally, they copy and paste each report to a new Web page. Have them add pictures and graphics that complement their writing and then hyperlink their reviews to each report and hyperlink the reports back to the review. (Be sure that they check all of their links to make sure that they work.)
Web Resources
- Example Student Book Reviews 1
http://www.pschulze.com/subweb/warriors03/
- An example of an annotated book review of Warriors Don't Cry by three of the author's students.
- Example Student Book Reviews 2
http://www.pschulze.com/subweb/warriors/
- Another example of annotated book reviews of Warriors Don't Cry.
- Book Review Directions 1
http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/wts/bookreview.html
- Directions for writing book reviews plus an example from an OWL.
- Book Review Directions 2
http://teacher.scholastic.com/writewit/bookrev/index.htm
- Rodman Philbrick's Scholastic writing workshop page with step-by-step directions for writing a book review and a sample review of To Kill A Mockingbird.
- Book Review Directions 3
http://depts.gallaudet.edu/englishworks/writing/bookreview.html
- Another good site with directions for writing a book review.
- Annotation Ideas
http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/reading/critread/pop5b.cfm
- A site giving great ideas for all kinds of annotations students could do.
Student Reproducibles and Other Resources
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| Student Assessment/Reflections |
| Much of the assessment of the project is teacher observation and anecdotal note taking. It is a good idea to have students do a reflective journal over the process of putting together the project. You may also choose to use a rubric for student annotated book reviews. |
1 - Students read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.
4 - Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
5 - Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.
6 - Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and nonprint texts.
7 - Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems. They gather, evaluate, and synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g., print and nonprint texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience.
8 - Students use a variety of technological and information resources (e.g., libraries, databases, computer networks, video) to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate knowledge.
11 - Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.
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