Wednesday, November 09, 2005
That's why there are Cliffs Notes
This morning I met with two of Sam's teachers to chat about how he is doing in school. One of them brought up his recent book report. I wasn't too impressed with his report and I don't think he actually read the book. Sam chose a biography of Martin Luther King, Jr. because he knows quite a bit about him and can easily spout off a bunch of facts about him. This morning I pointed out to Sam that his report was more about the man than about the book, and his teacher mentioned that Sam didn't quite follow the criteria for the report. Sam's reply to this was, "Well, why would anyone want to do a report on a book anyway?" I sat there for a moment, waiting for one of the teachers to chime in, but was met with deadly silence. Did they not know the answer? Had they wondered that themselves? Were they blindly assigning book reports without knowing why they did it, all the time wondering to themselves why anyone would want to do a report on a book anyway? After a pregnant pause, I finally jumped in to tell Sam that we write book reports because it is our assignment. I don't think he appreciated the avoidance of the real issue: Who wants to read the drivel written by middle schoolers about books they didn't actually read? Obviously not the teachers.
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2 comments:
At our kid's school, they have wierd book reports. Megan just turned in a "fruit or veggie character" that she fashioned from an apple to look like Cam Jensen. Cole has had sandwich book reports and diaramas. In fact, knwo that I think about it, he had a huge book report assignment to do last night. I wonder if he did it.
I always liked the non-traditional reports when I taught. I had to have some way of knowing whether they read it or not. Often, I'd just have an interview: open the book to some spot, read a paragraph and have the kid explain what was going on. You also want them to go beyond reading and do some thinking, too.
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