Five-Star Book Reviews

Students create a book review on a card or 3D cube to help others choose books they will enjoy

Engage

Begin this project by asking your students to name their favorite book you read to them this year. As they share their favorites, ask each student to articulate specific reasons that made the story great.

Remind them that everyone's reading preferences are unique, even among adults. Many people, including adults, rely on book reviews to discover new reads.

Show students an example of a book review, such as ones you find online or print examples from your local paper. These reviews are written for adults, so share an example or two of book reviews written by students as well.

Create

Let students know that they will be writing a review of a book they have enjoyed to help other students learn more about the story and decide if it is a book that they might enjoy reading too.

Have students think of a book they enjoyed reading on their own this year. After students have chosen a title, the next step is to help them move beyond a simple identification of a favorite book to supplying an opinion about it backed up by reasons and examples in the book.

Provide students with an OREO opinion organizer to help students develop their ideas before they start writing.

OREO Organizer

Provide your students with a book review template they can use to share the ideas they have developed as:

• book review posters you will hang on the wall,
• book review postcard you will print and share,
• or even 3D Cube students can print on card stock, cut, fold, glue and display.

Share

Celebrating the work of your emerging writers encourages them to continue their efforts. While displaying their writing is great, show students their writing has value by sharing it with other young learners who will use it to choose their next book to read.

Print two copies of each student’s card or 3D Cube. Share one copy in the reading area or book nook in your classroom and the other in the library media center at your school.

Assessment

You can assess student’s prior experience with opinion writing as you work together to evaluate what makes a good book review.

The OREO opinion organizer provides a great formative assessment opportunity you can use before they begin writing to ensure they understand how to support an opinion with reasons and examples, not simply restate it. Their final book review serves as a summative assessment of their opinion writing progress.

Resources

The Horn Book: Reviews of 2017 Caldecott Award Winners

Spaghetti Book Club: Book Reviews Written by Students

Read Brightly: 30 Books for Early Readers

Standards

Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.1.1
Write opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic or name the book they are writing about, state an opinion, supply a reason for the opinion, and provide some sense of closure.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.2.1
Write opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic or book they are writing about, state an opinion, supply reasons that support the opinion, use linking words (e.g., because, and, also) to connect opinion and reasons, and provide a concluding statement or section.