QUESTION: How can I make Independent Reading Projects cool for high school freshmen?

[Kim Danielski]

I am trying to create differentiated Individualized Reading Project choices that are high interest  for students in Freshman English classes to complete independently after reading a novel of their choice. Any groovy ideas out there? Thanks!

[Kelley Cusmano]

I've had really good luck with mock facebook pages. My kids have to create a profile picture, set up the info, provide a certain number of status updates and have wall posts which all relate to a character or the plot of a story. Some have modified their own profiles and taken a screen shot which they print out and send to me. Others have found imitation sites out there, create it and send to me. Hope this helps!

[Kerry Piper]

Great idea! I want to adapt it to plants/animals when my kids need to do a project in Biology.

[Kim Danielski]

Thanks Kelley! The Facebook page option is a great choice (and from what I understand can be quite time-consuming), especially for a summer read project!

[Lindsay Lombardi]

I think this project idea is fantastic.  Especially the status updates.

 

I'm guessing you had them create this in a word document or did you use some type of program that resembles facebook?

[Lea Hansen]

I've seen this idea before....but I've never used it. I think it is a great idea, I just think it would be difficult to implement because facebook is blocked at school and I hate to assign computer-related assignments when not all my students have the internet at home.



Perhaps I could have the kids create a facebook page on paper....like a "story board." I could create a handout that looks like a facebook page and the kids could fill in the blanks and find images from magazines, etc. that they could glue on the handout. (For example, profile pic.)

[Lea Hansen]

I found this! This site isn't blocked!

http://www.myfakewall.com/wall/create

[Lea Hansen]

http://hansengeorge.blogspot.com/2011/03/tuesdays-with-morrie-fake-...

[Tamara J. Fetzer]

One thing that seems to work well and is a fun activity is to have students rewrite the ending of the book. Have students write a brief summary of how the book ends, then write their own ending. 

Another idea is to have students do a presentation on their book and make a visual aid of some sort. The visual aid can be anything from a poster board to a PowerPoint presentation. Have criteria of what has to be included in the presentation. Tie the independent reading project to the unit that students are currently studying in class. For example: if the unit is on plot elements, have the students diagram the plot elements of their book and present it to the class.

[Ryan Goble]

Hi Kim, check out these related past discussions - Question: Summer Reading? and LESSON PLAN: Differentiated Freshman Summer Reading Project and QUESTION: Summer Reading Requirements? They might give you some ideas to build on.

[Kelly Farrow]

I recommend having them do a Web 2.0 component once they've read the story. They could choose between doing a Wordle, an XtraNormal video, a Blabber (from Blabberize.com) from the point of view of the character, a museum box ( http://museumbox.e2bn.org/ ), a glog (from Glogster  http://edu.glogster.com/? ), a web comic from any of a bunch of providers, or any other awesome Web 2.0 tool you enjoy.

[Kim Danielski]

Great ideas! I had not seen the museumbox before and thought that was awesome--especially for our students with special needs. We tried a Glogster project with our freshman students and that was very successful.

Thanks for sharing! 

[Katie Kimble]

An idea taken from the facebook page idea would be using iWeb on mac computers and having students create a website from a character's point of view. The main thing I like about using iWeb is depending on the character, they can choose the focus and theme of the web page. The students don't actually have to publish the page either.