What should a book report look like for a second grader?

[Ameena]

One with no previous writing experience? She does read a lot though. I have no clue what is appropriate for this age / level. I was thinking 5 sentences, but wasn't sure if it should be just 3.

 

We are doing a summer program where she needs to write a book report for each of the books she read for the program in order to get her reward. These will be easy books - anything from Little bear up to American Girl level.

[Petrichor]

I would probably start by googling "2nd grade book report" to try to find some examples (you might not be able to find anything though). Then, discuss the book together, trying to get her to tell you about it (i.e. oral book report). Then try to get her to write it on paper. It might help if you follow some sort of structure - Sentence 1 - Introduce the title of the book. Sentence 2 - Tell what happened in the book or the setting. Sentence 3 - tell 1 thing you liked about the book.

 

So you might end up with something like: I read The Diary of Jane. Jane is a girl who lived in England. She did a lot of fun stuff like ride horses and play hide and seek.

 

or

 

I read the Diary of Jane. Jane was an English girl who liked to play hide and seek a lot. I liked the part where she got to talk to her horses about her wish to go to school.

 

She could do three or four sentences, depends on what she wants to write. 5 is kind of a lot at that age - the writing tends to get repetitive after a while. I tell my students ( I teach 3rd graders) that it doesn't matter how many sentences they write, as long as they include all of the necessary info and it's neither a run-on or too choppy. 3 sentences is what I look for from them though.

 

http://kids.usa.gov/articles/book-report/index.shtml Since she's just starting out, just have her include a few elements from that page.

[ErinE]

For my children, it was a few sentences in the following format:

 

I read the book [TITLE] by [AUTHOR]. It was about [MAIN CHARACTER] who [DILEMMA SUMMARY]. I liked it because [REASON].

 

So, my DS did something like this:

 

I read the book Harriet the Spy by Louis Fitzhugh. It was about a little girl who writes mean things about her friends in a notebook. They find the notebook and read it. I liked it because Harriet wants to be a writer and I like writing, too.

 

I can't format on the iPad, but the title would be underlined. He narrated several book reports like this, writing a sentence or two with me finishing the rest.

 

ETA: the PP poster and I wrote similar posts. After DS wrote several book reports, we would talk about combining and simplifying sentences and changing the structure so the paragraph is isn't a series of noun-verb constructions.. So using the above, he would narrate:

 

In Harriet the Spy by Louis Fitzhugh, a girl spies on her friends and writes down what she sees. She learns it is wrong to say or write mean things about people after her friends read her notebook. I liked the book, because I want to be a writer.

[Hedgehogs4]

There are so many other ways to do book reports than writing. Have her narrate to you what the story is about. Have her write about other things, or ask her what her favorite part of the book was and have her copy a sentence or two from that part. IMHO, there is no reason to attack the love of reading by having a child have to do something so difficult as write about it when they can hardly write to begin with. It is a very school-induced notion that we had to do book reports to prove that we had read something. I think there are many better ways to get a kid to interact with what they have read.

[hsmom2011]

n/a

[Ameena]

There are so many other ways to do book reports than writing. Have her narrate to you what the story is about. Have her write about other things, or ask her what her favorite part of the book was and have her copy a sentence or two from that part. IMHO, there is no reason to attack the love of reading by having a child have to do something so difficult as write about it when they can hardly write to begin with. It is a very school-induced notion that we had to do book reports to prove that we had read something. I think there are many better ways to get a kid to interact with what they have read.

 

 

OP here - I totally agree with you, but the program requires a written book report and an oral report for each book. DD wants to participate as you get $20 cash for the first 20 books, and then entered for prizes afterwards. She really wants the $20 to put in her AG savings fund :)

[Hedgehogs4]

Well, in that case--write all the book reports you want! I will admit that I did not read the second half of your post as closely as I should have. Sorry! :leaving:

[Ruby Rose]

I really like this worksheet.

 

http://bnute.blogspot.com/2012/06/free-printable-kids-book-report.html

[PachiSusan]

We did a worksheet that had the name of the book and the author, the publisher, the publishing date. Then there were questions: Who are the main characters? (List 3 if possible), What was the story about? What did you like about the book? and Why Did you Like the book?