Banish Boring Book Reports - Give Art a Try!

As part of my children's English/Literature classes, all three of them are ALWAYS reading a novel assigned by me. To assess their understanding of the books, I use a wide variety of assignments. Usually, I assign a specific assignment to go along with the book - either an ongoing assignment to be completed as the book is read (e.g., end of chapter comprehension questions) or a final assignment to be completed after the book is read (e.g., book report).

The last book my 7th grade daughter read for school was Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. As she read the book, we talked about it. Actually just talking about books is one of my favorite ways of assessing understanding of books with my oldest child. As she has gotten older, her insights are often so interesting that it's truly a pleasure to talk to her about books. For Fahrenheit 451, though, I asked her to complete a final project as well.

In the back of the CliffsNotes for Fahrenheit 451, there was a list of Essay Questions and Practice Projects. I told her that she could pick one of the Practice Projects that she wanted to do. She chose:

• Design a poster illustrating a scene from the novel or capturing a theme in the novel.

When Amber presented her work to me, I was truly just blown away by her depiction of one of the scenes in the novel. Not only did she accurately depict the scene, her painting truly captured the feeling that the scene evoked in her. For those readers familiar with Fahrenheit 451, she chose to illustrate the scene in which Montag first shares a book with his wife. His wife reacts in fear and anger and is eager to get back to her true family, the wall-size television.

I love how my daughter illustrated the wall-size television. She told me that from the book's descriptions, she pictured the images on the television as being larger than life, louder than life, and just a bit creepy.

Montag, on the other hand, is sad, beaten-up, and overwhelmingly lonely after his wife's reaction.

My daughter enjoyed this assignment, was quite proud of her work, and doing the assignment added to her understanding and appreciation of the book. I will definitely be giving this assignment as an option for future end-of-book projects! So, if you find yourself stuck in a boring book report rut, give art a try!