Google Blogger

Readers Think. Thinkers Write. Writers Blog. 

Use Google Blogger to help you jot your thoughts about the books you read and get lost in!  Become a book critic!  Invite students to become readers who write book reviews! Once they complete a picture book or chapter book, they can summarize the text and follow up with their own thinking/opinions of the text.  Here is a structure you may find useful when learning to write a book review: 

Paragraph #1: Write a summary of the text!   You can use the outline provided here →	Sent.  #1: Attention grabber (ask a question, give a statistic, include a quote from the text, or?) Sent. #2: Include the title and author of the text Sent. #3: Describe the setting (there may be more than one place) Sent. #4: Describe when the story/text takes place Sent. #5: Characters or people involved (just the most important ones) Sent. #6-9: What happens (describe the main ideas, big problem, how it’s resolved) Sent. #10-12:Explain why the text is important “This story shows the value of …” “It’s important to read stories like this because it reminds us …” “From ________ I realized that …” I believe the author wrote this text to teach us that … Sent. #13-14:  What can we learn from this? Sent. #15: Conclusion sentence (very last thought you leave us with … make it count!)
Paragraph #2: Write your own thoughts and opinions about the story	Out of all the stories written about friendship, this is one of my favorites.  It is not often that you read of such an unlikely friendship.  Freak the Mighty is a story that takes the idea of friendship to a new level! I wish that more books took an honest look at how hard it can be to make new friends, and how we should be more open to finding a lifelong friendship in an unexpected place.
Paragraph #3: Include a rating/recommendation.	I would highly recommend this story to someone who is willing to dig deep into a character’s personality.  This story is not for someone who wants to read about some fantasy land or make-believe characters.  This is heart-warming, real-life story of a family who...
Paragraph #4: More information (author biography, video clips, images, other book reviews, student poll/survey, etc)	If you loved this book by Paul Fleischman, than you should definitely check out his home website.   If you want to find out what other readers think of this story, check out these reviews: LINK Also, did you know there was a video read aloud of this book? You can check it out here: LINK If you were the author, how would YOU have ended the story?

Here is a chart to help you respond to the books you read:

IF YOU WANT TO FOCUS ON:	WAYS TO WRITE YOUR THINKING DOWN, HELPFUL BOOK REVIEW SENTENCE STARTERS!
Genre	The genre of this book is … I know this is the genre because …
Author’s Craft	I love how the author uses the craft of ________ to … One strategy I noticed the author use is ________ and I think it made the story ___________ because … The author’s purpose was …
Character Development	The main character, _______________, teaches me that … The secondary characters taught me that … One change I noticed was that …
Story Structure (overview of setting, characters, plot, conflict, resolution)	This book is mostly about … In the beginning, … In the middle, … And by the end, I … The story takes place in … and this is significant to the story because … The story is set in _______, which changes the outcome of the story because … The plot had a surprising twist.  Little did I know … The main conflict in the text was …
Big ideas/theme	The theme of this story is … and I know this because … I thought the big idea of the book was … This book has taught me to …
Personal connections	When I was reading about the main character, I was connecting to a time when I … I was able to relate to the text when I read “ ______” The characters taught me that … I was surprised to read that …
Other	The pictures in the book show how … The movie version of this book is the same/different.  For example, ...

Here are a few links to view some examples of Blogger Book Reviews:

Bella's Book Reviews

Grace's Book Reviews

Mrs. Hilton/Ms. Landis's Book Reviews