Ending Progress Reports

This term I decided to try a little experiment. I decided to ask the students to write Progress Reports on their reading rather than book reports. There were several reasons for this. One, some students were reading books, but were not writing book reports because they felt they couldn't write a good report on that book. I felt that this was missing the point, as our real goal was reading, not writing. Secondly, some students were not keeping up with their reading, and I wanted to better monitor their progress. As well, some students were reading their books, but turning in book reports after the deadline, causing them to lose massive points on their grades.

These are all valid reasons for the idea, and I stand behind them. However, what seemed a good idea in theory was a little confusing in practice. The biggest problem was that students didn't clearly identify what progress they made in their reading. Most didn't remember my instructions to write down what pages they had read. This led to confusion for me as I often didn't know if the report I was receiving was a Progress Report or a Final Report. As well, and most importantly, I noticed a greater tendency for students to stop reading once they had reached their reading quote.

This last reason particularly has convinced me that we should go back to book reports.

Date: 2010⁄02⁄14 09:54｜Permalink｜Author：nelp

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