In the digital age, there is no excuse for book reports (either from teachers or students). Books --and our individual and communal experience with them -- are just too important, and the book report is more likely to kill engagement with that book than it is to invigorate one's literary experiences. So let's be done with it, replacing it with better practices.
Why I Can't Stand Book Reports
Where is this coming from? Well, one of my students, assigned to write a book review for my Digital Culture class, dutifully posted his on his blog and then linked to it with the phrase, "Book report time!"
That really bugged me. What is this, 7th grade?
It bugged me in part because as a parent, I've suffered through many a book report my children have belabored--usually at the last minute. And as a teacher, I've suffered from reading so many superficial or tedious responses to books or other readings. But mostly, it bugged me because it meant I had failed to get across to my students the more consequential ways that books can be part of their learning nowadays. So, I'm going to try to fix that, and I'm going to do so by arguing against the book report genre.
 |
| Creative Commons Licensed Flashy Soup Can - Flickr |
- Student reads the assigned or chosen book
- Student writes a response that partly summarizes, partly analyzes the book (sometimes using a prompt from the teacher).
- Student turns in book report to teacher.
- Teacher grades book report, using it as evidence that the book has been read and its ideas understood.
- Rinse, lather, and repeat
What is wrong with this picture -- especially given what books can be in the digital age? Let's take a look.
Selecting Books Better
There remain good reasons why teachers may control students' choices for reading. But outside of school, people select their own books, and today there are better ways to do this than ever before. One can digitally browse books, read reviews, scan tables of contents, preview parts or all of a prospective book, consult various lists or online communities where the books are discussed -- there is no excuse today for not selecting books more intelligently. It's like when I hear someone walking out of a movie because they didn't expect something offensive in it. Really? Anyone going to see movies today who doesn't know how to find and read reviews deserves to lose their money on a poor choice. Same goes for books.
We can select books better because there are improved ways of finding them and finding those communities that discuss these works. Even when students have no or limited choices for their reading, they can still benefit from browsing among the book sites and literary social networks to get a feel for the sort of book they are reading. For my students, I curated a set of books relevant to our class topic and asked for them to choose from among those books or to propose books comparable in nature. That has worked well.
We can select books better because there are improved ways of finding them and finding those communities that discuss these works. Even when students have no or limited choices for their reading, they can still benefit from browsing among the book sites and literary social networks to get a feel for the sort of book they are reading. For my students, I curated a set of books relevant to our class topic and asked for them to choose from among those books or to propose books comparable in nature. That has worked well.
Responding to Books Informally and Publicly
The classic book report is a formal academic genre. You write it after you have (supposedly) read the whole book, and this constitutes your entire response (except maybe classroom discussion). In the digital age, it is possible for us to narrate our reading experiences, informally and publicly, through various media, over time. It turns out that less formal reporting on one's reading may actually get more traction than that crusty classic, the book report.
Some may tremble at the prospect of hearing the half-formed thoughts of half-read books spread like bacteria over the web. But knowledge in process is a value of the digital age that competes with (and sometimes bests) finished knowledge products. In other words, people are more likely to find value in someone's narrated process of reading a book than in reading a formal book report or review.
Here's an example from Twitter:
 |
| People tweet their reading experiences even before finishing the book. On twitter, some use the #amreading hashtag |
The book report formalizes the valuing of literary experiences and makes people feel as though they cannot really have gained anything from the book until they have read every page. Reading all of a book is great (though not always strictly necessary). And formalizing one's responses to reading can serve a good purpose. But today it is very easy to see the value of informal sharing about one's whole reading journey.
"Just started reading Anna Karenina!" one of my students reported. Wait a minute -- why would it be of any value to know that someone had just begun a book, or worse, that they were merely intending to read it? That's cheating! Well, take a look at this screenshot from my Goodreads feed today:
 |
| I learn what my friends are wanting to read in my Goodreads.com feed |
I see that Sarah (the college-age daughter of an old friend) has decided she wants to read Lois Lowry's book Son from The Giver series. Hey, I just finished the first book of that series a few months ago. Next time I see Sarah (or her parents) I now have something to talk about. Then there's Jeff, who marked as to-read the book Year Zero. That's on my to-read list, too! Now I'm curious to know why he wants to read it. Maybe I'll shoot him a note. And frankly, that book was toward the bottom of my to-read list. But knowing a friend wants to read it now moves it up my list.
Do you see what is happening here? When one is tapped into a network of friends who share their reading experiences, it gives one social motives for reading. This is more authentic than that artificial coercion to read known as the book report. Socially inspired reading gets one to read more and more widely, too. Why aren't teachers helping students gain life-long literacy by tying reading assignments into social media? (There are reasons, of course. Just not good enough ones).
Socially Motivated Responses to Reading
When students write a book report, they often write summaries (too often cribbed from public sources). Hopefully, they also analyze the work in question. But because the book report is a one-shot deal, aimed at the teacher's in box, they aren't inherently motivated to dig into the text. I mean, what do they care what the teacher thinks of the report, apart from the grade that will be given and perhaps some approbation?
Online, it is possible to include one's reading within the ongoing conversations of one's social networks. Students are going to respond better to books when they are simultaneously in an environment where others will respond to them as they discuss them. This has always been true within a well-run classroom; today, it's just more widely possible (and more natural to do so) via social media.
Besides posting to Facebook or one's established social networks, one can post reviews on social book sites like Goodreads or Shelfari, or on commercial sites like Amazon (which can have quite active sets of reviews on any given book's site). As students see what others have said about the book in question, they may feel eager to have their say and add to the discussion.
Online forums within learning management systems like Blackboard or Brain Honey are a way that teachers have been getting students to discuss their reading in recent years. There, students can be required not only to post responses to readings, but to respond to one another. As a teacher I've required this, and to a degree I'm a big fan of it. I've seen that even though posting there is artificial, it gives students a voice that would others be silent, and the students do get more interested in the topics of the reading when they discuss those with peers.
But why keep the discussion closed within the artificial and temporary bounds of a class discussion (in person or online)? It is now possible for students to be public about their ideas, and to engage other readers, peers, or even authors themselves online. Two ways to do this include finding and responding to blogs where that book is being discussed; and searching live web sources to find people currently discussing it.
 |
| Don't just search Google; use Google Blog Search |
As for searching blogs, if I'm reading Chris Anderson's book, The Long Tail, I could visit Google Blog Search and type in "chris anderson long tail." Today this returned links to a blog in Bath, England discussing how Anderson's ideas are being applied to manufacturing, and to a blog from the London School of Economics and Political Science, where someone has posted about the "long tail of academic publishing." Posts on both blogs are quite recent, and I could write responses directly on those blogs. Here are people applying the ideas that I've just read about in Anderson's book. Those ideas are fresh on their minds, as they are on mine. If I read their take on those ideas and respond, they are going to take me seriously and I can end up in a great discussion -- an authentic one -- not one tied to a temporary academic setting.
 |
| Searching the live web enhances reading Found this on Google+ by searching for "howe crowdsourcing" after reading Jeff Howe's book, Crowdsourcing |
As for searching live web sources, this is where it gets to be really fun to be a reader today. One can search on Twitter (search.twitter.com) or on Google+ to find what people are saying right now about a book or topic. For example, if I've just read Jeff Howe's book, Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd is Driving the Future of Business, I can search Google+ (see the picture above). Doing so this morning yielded immediately an article of interest to me in how crowdsourcing is being done by undergraduates within digital humanities projects. When I made the same search on Twitter, guess what I found?
 |
| Many authors are using social media. One can follow them and even engage them directly. |
That's right, I found out that author Jeff Howe is actually on Twitter (using the name @crowdsourcing, of course). So I started to follow him. From his recent tweets I see he's been watching TED talks, and has recently been interested in crowds at work in urban crises and in military design. Now, what if I started to research and talk about the same topics and mentioned him on Twitter? I might end up in a conversation with a real live author about ideas from his book and how they matter right now. How cool is that?
Multi-media Responses to Reading
Book reports from grade schools are more interesting than those done in secondary schools or colleges. This is because teachers of younger grades often will allow students to engage with books in creative ways, making posters or food or some kind of activity that will get the student (and perhaps classmates) involved with the book. Why do we outgrow that sort of response to reading?
Well, we do that because the higher we get in schooling, the more analysis is aligned with textual literacy. I'm all for being able to read and write good prose, and I do not question the analytical abilities that are developed or expressed through texts. But I do know that students can become more engaged in their books by being given some license to use alternative media (including, but not limited to digital media).
 |
| Student Brandon McCloskey responded to a book by creating a "mod" for a computer game. Now others can experience the virtual world he made that reflects his reading |
This can take a simple form, such as finding an illustration or picture to accompany one's response, or creating one's own character sketch, storyboard, map, or timeline. It could mean engaging the text through audio or video, or through word cloud visualizations made on Wordle.net.
One student, responding to a book about the middle ages called A World Lit Only By Fire, decided to create a computer game "mod" and publish this so that others could experience the medieval world as described in the book he read. Other students of mine have responded to their reading by creating fan fiction, original stories that take place in the worlds and with the characters provided by books they've read. Here is Joanna Barker's Shakespeare fanfiction in which she rewrites the end of Taming of the Shrew from the point of view of Kate.
Can multi-media or experiential responses to books get one to depart from the central ideas of a book? Can such students become less responsible readers? This is a risk; but there is risk in not engaging students, too. When given the opportunity to use various media to creatively engage texts, students are more likely to share these things and get into conversations about the book's topics.
Video Book Reviews
A great blend of digital culture and print culture is the video book review. There's just something more interesting about seeing a real human being talking about the book they have read. Click on this image to be taken to a video review of author Marilynne Robinson's book, Home. I wasn't that interested in the book until he started comparing it to Robinson's book, Gilead, which I much admire. These reviews work!
Even the very traditional New York Times has gotten on the video book review bandwagon. Here's a video review by the Times' children's books editor about some books about Jane Goodall. I think it is very engaging, but the video is highly produced and so is not a very good model for those wanting to create such videos.
Here's a two minute instructional video made by eleven-year old Emma giving you step-by-step instructions on how to create a book review video.
Video Book Reviews
A great blend of digital culture and print culture is the video book review. There's just something more interesting about seeing a real human being talking about the book they have read. Click on this image to be taken to a video review of author Marilynne Robinson's book, Home. I wasn't that interested in the book until he started comparing it to Robinson's book, Gilead, which I much admire. These reviews work!
 |
| Video reviews can be helpful both to watch and to create. |
Here's a two minute instructional video made by eleven-year old Emma giving you step-by-step instructions on how to create a book review video.
We Can Build a Reading Reputation
The book report has no life beyond its function within a classroom. In contrast, when students post reviews of their reading online, those reviews can contribute permanently to online knowledge about a book, and can build one's reputation as a reader. As one achieves notice (or even notoriety) for reviewing and discussing books, this creates a virtuous cycle in which students want to continue having their thoughts taken seriously.
Reputation can begin in modest ways. For example, someone may merely indicate that they "like" another's posted review:
That makes the reviewer feel good. Somebody cares about something I wrote! As one continues to publish reviews, this leads to others wanting to follow your reviews, or to befriend you within your common networks. And when people start following one's reviews or obviously reading them, the tendency is for one to write better and more reviews. This is much better than the book report, which has no mechanism for building up the student's cumulative sense of his or hear own reading, or of others' interest in it.
 |
| Rachel has posted over 50 reviews and rated 271 books. She's become a real authority whose opinion is trusted |
Each week I get a notice email from Goodreads telling me about all the reviews my friends have posted on that site. I glance through them, and it most certainly affects how I value those friends. When I need recommendations about young adult literature or science fiction, I now go to my friends Melissa or Jacob, who always post great reviews in those genres. When I'm interested in political nonfiction, I look up with Jon or Jeff says. All it takes for me is to browse through a half dozen of a friend's reviews to realize that that person is a serious reader and deserves my attention. Anyone can experience gaining a reputation as a reader if they are willing to post their reviews within a social network like Goodreads or even Amazon (which gives book reviewers a reputation rating earned over time).
Digital Death to Books
Okay, that heading is a bit strong, but there are ways that books can become less interesting and important nowadays, even if one is trying to use some of today's media and communications tools.
- Don't use media as a lame crutch for thought
Above, I encouraged the muse of multimedia as a kind of engagement. But we all know that images, animations, and many other digital playthings can be bells and whistles and not substantial at all. I'm all for experimentation with our new media, but be on guard for when non-textual media can distract one from real thought about books or ideas. - Don't trap book discussions inside of Learning Management Systems
Above, I mentioned that an LMS can sometimes help students to write and converse about books. This is true, but since the LMS is a walled garden (a pretty and useful place so long as one is inside of it), what one produces inside of that space is cut off from the larger conversations going on in the world (needlessly). What students write in such spaces is protected, and that's an argument in their favor, but sadly student writing is also protected from permanence and relevance. If knowledge is kept from circulation, its lifespan is limited. - Don't post a book review to your blog
Well, don't only post a book review to your blog. If you want your ideas to be in circulation, you need to go where ideas are circulating and tie into those active streams. And unless your blog has thousands of regular viewers, the blog ain't it! So go ahead, write that review, but post it to a social book site like Goodreads, link to your review from within your Facebook, Twitter, or Google+ streams. - Don't restrict your online book life to reviews
Book reviews, if socially mediated, can be a great way to build your reputation. But by themselves they can be passive. So, don't just post reviews; find the people and the places where these books are being discussed and join those conversations.
Ten Ways to Bring Books Into Your Digital Life
I will end with this 12-minute video I made talking about a variety of ways books come to life in digital ways.
No comments:
Post a Comment