Vacation Reading and Book Reports

Luz Elena Barragán
Elementary English Coordinator

At Colegio Los Nogales students are always invited to maintain the habit of reading during vacation time. The English Department encourages students to choose and read English books in order to keep consistent growth of their vocabulary, reading comprehension strategies, and thinking skills. When returning to virtual school in January, elementary students were able to share what they had read by planning, designing, and presenting their book reports.

First graders answered some questions about the book they chose and read, classified information, and made an interesting video. They orally described the theme of the book and the plot, explained the reason why they read the book, described their favorite part, and expressed their opinion and recommendation on it. Students had the chance to develop and practice their oral skills. Besides, they shared their videos in class and learned to receive and give feedback.

Second graders also chose books that they found engaging and read them during the holidays. To share their thoughts about the books they read, they completed a hands-on project using very basic materials in an innovative way. They were asked to use their creativity and some flash cards in order to  describe main characters, draw a picture of the setting, and write the main events that happened at the beginning, middle and end of the story. With the flashcards, they created a book mobile.  Second graders found this project super exciting and they were eager to present it to their classmates. It was an opportunity for students to demonstrate their comprehension of story elements (characters, setting and plot), as well as to refine their writing skills.

In 3rd grade, students checked out books from the school library and read them during the holidays. As they came back, they shared the book they had read and made a book report in Drive. The tool gave teachers the possibility to instantly see students’ work, answer questions on the spot, and make comments during the working time. This was an interesting first, since in virtual education, it is hard to give feedback until students post their final work. The book report project allowed third graders to refresh topics seen in the past such as main idea, details and supporting sentences, voice of the narrator (first and third person), and summary.  Third graders also had the opportunity to think and tell what kind of people would enjoy reading their book. 

We hope you enjoy this book reports as much as our students did!