21st Century Learners: Retiring the Book Report

Fellow blogger  +Kathy Kimpel  writes in her latest post, 21st Century Learners: Retiring the Book Report: "We need to retire the "Book Report" Common Core will ask student to "Analyze" not summarize."

Growing up in the 60's, my sisters and I wrote book reports every year, year after year, on the same book, The Pink Motel.  So much so that in our house, 'pink motel' became a euphemism for being a slacker.   We certainly did little more than DOK1.  

Kathy provides some great ideas for moving beyond the book report into more critical thinking with depth and complexity.  She addresses both digital and non-digital ideas for our students to demonstrate a meaningful interpretation of their reading.  With an iPad students can create podcasts, make trailers with iMovie, and use a variety of "show me" apps to create models of real comprehension, analysis and synthesis.