Book Report with a Difference!
Have some fun learning the ‘Language of Criticism’
Task:
A pretentious talk show host interviews an equally as pretentious book reviewer about a book they think people your age would love to read. In pairs, you must present a 3-minute play that reviews a book both you and your partner have read and enjoyed.
The dialogue of the play must contain the name of the book, the author, the genre of the book, the setting, an outline of the plot, the major complication, the author’s message to the reader (why the author wrote the book) and a comment as to why students should read this book.
The dialogue should aim to contain a few of these words where appropriate: tone, mood, atmosphere, point of view, climax, anti-climax, flashback, theme, monologue.
I also find I like to challenge the children by doing a little ‘enforced creativity’ in relation to vocabulary 🙂
You must also include the words:
- facetious, trite, pugnacious & plausible
- words the teacher wants to focus on
- three new words you have learned for this task
To help develop vocabulary and to have the children ‘rise above the mundane use of words’ I insist on some words are not being used.
Words definitely not allowed: got, fun, sad & happy
Teaching Point:
The trick with a book review is to tell the audience enough about the book to convince people to read it, but not enough to ruin the experience for them.
