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Book Reports for 7th - how do you do them?


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My ds13 is an avid reader but a very reluctant writer. I have been trying to get him to write reports about books he has read (fiction) using the SWB literary criticism format (WWS1), but it's not working out very well. He has trouble analyzing the whole protagonist/antagonist thing and ends up usually just writing a big long summary of the whole book. On the other hand, he seems to do well with historical and scientific writing.

 

Does anyone use a good writing program that may teach this better? If he had a little more practice and hand holding, I think he'd get it.

 

Also, how often do you require you dc to write reports about books he's read?

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If he struggles with the various lit analysis terms, I would highly recommend Figuratively Speaking.

 

I have begun working with my DD to start analyzing short stories from a literature textbook. The selections have discussion questions and I've been choosing 5 questions to write a paragraph per question. LA is her strongest suit so it's a high school textbook but there are probably middle school level ones out there with similar discussion questions. Mosdos might be an option to look into.

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I do not require my kids to write any "book reports".

 

I would begin by orally discussing the aspects of the book you want him to grasp.

 

This. I think book reports are probably a very good tool for someone who needs to make sure 30 kids actually read and grasped the book. In a homeschool situation it's not needed, and our discussions often require deeper lit analysis anyway.

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If he struggles with the various lit analysis terms, I would highly recommend Figuratively Speaking.

 

I have begun working with my DD to start analyzing short stories from a literature textbook. The selections have discussion questions and I've been choosing 5 questions to write a paragraph per question. LA is her strongest suit so it's a high school textbook but there are probably middle school level ones out there with similar discussion questions. Mosdos might be an option to look into.

 

Could you please share which textbook you use? TIA

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