Please give me all your wonderful suggestions about evaluating reading assignments...

[Janie]

As much as I push reading, I find it difficult to push required outside reading to my middle school students. Reason: I need an easy way to evaluate whether or not they have truly read the book.

When we homeschooled, it was easy. I SAW my kids reading. They talked to me about the books. I could ask simple questions to ascertain whether they were flipping pages or really reading.

I don't need any long and drawn out method of assessment. I don't need reports or any more additions to my piles of papers to grade.

I have thought about assigning only books that Book Adventure has quizzes for and have them take a quiz that can be scored easily.

I feel like a failure to have not required so many books per quarter, but without a good evaluative measure, I'm afraid that the students might be encouraged to cheat and lie about reading the books. I'd rather wait for a good method to assess than let the students start trying to figure out ways around my requirements.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

[FloridaLisa]

Hmmm. . . what about pulling a quote from the book and having them write a paragraph or two about it? You don't so much have to grade the writing as determine from the content whether the book was read. Perhaps this too could be gamed through lit guides, but it would require little work on your part to find a few good quotes. Less gaming if the paper is completed in class so no lit guides could be consulted.

Or . . . write about a character analysis/development, a theme, the moral lesson, etc.

Just a thought,
Lisa

[Cathy in TX]

This book, by Bonnie A. Helms has reproducible quizzes for 150 books, many of which are classics, some of which are middle-school appropriate. There is also the follow up book "100 More Great Books."

The books have fill-in the blank quizzes, followed by short essay questions. The answers are also given in the book. Here it is on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/150-Great-Books-Bonnie-Helms/dp/0825101174/ref=pd_bb

Hope this helps. I certainly find it a time-saver around when checking the free-reading comprehension. :)

Cathy

[Kristine out of lurking]

Hi Janie (waving!),

You need a way to show that the students are reading. You want it to require as little additional extra work on your part as possible.

Are they doing any type of spine along with the reading? Is there a way to incorporate their writing assignments with what they are reading? I would be happy to let you flip through my Teaching the Classics book to get an idea of suggested questions/topics for writing assignments. (But of course reviewing any additional student writing would be additional work on your part.)

Those Reading Adventure quizzes just make me cringe. Aren't they exactly the opposite of everything you have worked so hard for over the past few years? You don't want the kids to "fill in the blank," you want them to really think. (I can't stand the Accelerated Reader program, but that's a totally different post.)

Is there a way that the kids can be grouped together in 3s or 5s or ? to review/discuss each book? Perhaps complete some type of story chart that includes setting, climax, etc. (thinking Teaching the Classics again here). I know some kids might still fall through the cracks, but I don't have to tell you that you'll always have kids who will avoid the work no matter what. :)

And next time you are in the library, please stop by if you have time. :lol:
I really should check out your blog, but I can barely keep up with my own!

[Michelle in MO]

Very similar to Book Adventure, which I used with my youngest daughter, is Renaissance Learning (http://www.renlearn.com/). I tried signing up for this myself, but this resource was only available to schools. Check to be sure: it might only be available to public schools. I'm almost certain that an account needs to be created for the school.

I do like FloridaLisa's thought of a short paragraph summarizing the book, or a character, or the development of a character or theme in the book. Not too much for you to read or evaluate, but also easy for you to correct. If the books are classic works, though, in this case I'd make doubly sure they were doing their own reading and not a summary from SparkNotes or Cliff Notes or some other online resource.