Book Reviews - by our first graders

"Take a look.  It's in a book.  Reading Rainbow. Reading Rainbow.  I can go anywhere. . . "  You know how it goes and if you are like me, then you were probably singing along.  Reading Rainbow was one of the inspirations for our latest first grade writing project.  We wrote book reviews and published them as a video for our class to enjoy. 

As part of our new writing standards, students are asked to do "Opinion" writing.  What better way to express their opinions than to do book reviews on some of their favorite books?  Our first graders did just that and came up with some very good ideas. 

Here's a breakdown of our project:  First, we read a funny book together about a field trip gone terribly wrong.  We talked about what the book was mostly about by giving a summary.  Then, students gave their opinions about the book and discussed what we liked about the book by picking out specific parts that were funny.  After that, we wanted to suggest this book to our friends and told why.  We recorded the information students shared on chart paper and published the writing by hanging it in the hallway for people to read. 

Here's the exciting part. . . I shared with students my idea to write book reviews and video them, just like the show "Reading Rainbow".  They were thrilled to hear that they would be on video doing their book reviews. Our next step was for the students to go home and look for a book they'd like to share with others.  We discussed how it should be one of their favorites and something they've read a lot, so they would be an expert on this book.  It was interesting to hear their conversations as they were deciding which books they'd bring.  After they brought their books to school, we had a "book talk" where we just simply went through these questions during our share time:

     1.  What was your book about? (summary)
     2.  What did you like about this book? What was your favorite part?
     3.  Why do you think someone else should read this book?

These questions sparked a lot of conversation and interest for each others' choices.  It was also nice to see the excitement in their faces as they shared their own books with others.  After a few days of our book talks, we then went into our "Writer's Workshop" and wrote about our books.  Each student answered those questions in their writing and added details to interest the reader.  After we revised, edited, and published our writing; it was time to video our work.  We used the CME Library as a background and went into production of our video.  During filming, students worked on projecting their voices, reading fluency, and looking up from their reading to see the camera.  The video was a hit!  Here are just a few book reviews for you to enjoy.  "Happy Reading!"