This year my sixth grade honors students read a variety of novels. In addition to the novels we read in class, they read classic literature of their choice, as well as popular young adult fiction. Some of their favorite novels included the Caldecott or Newberry Medal winners. 

Along with their reading assignments, students made individual dioramas depicting a favorite scene in the novels they read. They made individual note cards of challenging words in each book.  Towards the end of the school year they also made Microsoft PowerPoint Presentations of their books as an alternate option to making a diorama. 

All of their critiques, words and PowerPoint Presentations were also kept in their individual red writing portfolio notebooks. These "hard copy"  portfolios will be given to their seventh grade teacher as an example of an  authentic  writing assessment for each student. Their new teacher will have an idea of the work they completed last year, and an indication of their capabilities for the coming school year.

All of their dioramas, critiques and challenging words were displayed in our classroom. Every marking period we devoted a day to hear students make oral presentations of the books they read and the dioramas they made.

Some of their literary choices they made were also of the popular young adult genre, particularly, Gary Paulsen, C.S. Lewis, Louis Sachar, Beverly Cleary and J.K. Rowling.

Here in New York State this  part of our English Language Arts Curriculum, is in line with the New York State ELA Standards

Overall, their critiques express their impressions of the books they read. I believe they enjoyed their reading experiences this year... which was the plan all along!

 


Student Writing Samples

Web Resources on "Literary Critiques"

Chante

Terron

Felicia

Emily T

Sarah

Alicia

Samantha

Nicole

Ashley

Jessica

PowerPoints

Lauren

Sarah

Jessica

Alicia

Ashley

Just for Kids Who Love Books (Reading List)

World of Reading - Book Reviews by Kids

Harry Potter Links (Lots of 'Em)

All Mixed Up - Hangman (Online Word Game)