Every parent and teacher is aware of the influence of peer pressure, so make it work in your favor. A reading ladder is a list of book summaries along with cover photos which allows students to record their top five books and share these with their friends. These can be displayed on the classroom or library wall to allow students to browse and select their future reading material based on their friends' recommendations. This is a helpful tool to teach students about genre as they can create lists such as "My Top Five Horror Stories."
Book reports can be used to teach research skills by setting students on a reading quest. Develop a list of questions which teams of students will have a fixed amount of time to research in the library. Students will have to work together to locate the correct books and use these to answer the questions on their worksheet. The winning team can be awarded a small prize which is related to the topic they have researched. This is a great way to introduce a new topic in fact-based subjects such as history and science.
If students are preparing for a literature exam then book report board games are a fun form of revision. Students should design a board game which their classmates can play in order to develop their understanding about a book or play. This could be a dice game like Ludo in which the chronological order of events from the text are laid out on the board for the pieces to travel along, or a question-based game like Trivial Pursuit in which students have to answer questions or identify which character is associated with a quotation.
Cartoons are not just for small children. Students of any age will enjoy the opportunity to create a cartoon strip summary of a story, novel or play. Though this might sound easy, it is actually a highly effective reading strategy which allows students to synthesize descriptions of character and setting while identifying the key events of a story or text. It also teaches students to locate and select the most relevant information from a large section of text.