MSA Madness and Book Review Blues…3-27-09

With all the madness of MSA, it seems like everything in both school and home life has been put on hold. How is it that these assessments manage to take over and control so much? The power they have is truly amazing no matter how much we try to avoid it. This week, our first official book reviews were due for our class wiki. The quality of what I received varied from stellar to stinky with a little of everything else in between. Even after modeling how to write one several times and viewing a number of examples online, there appear to be some major areas of need. The biggest gap is evident in the amount of content given in the story elements section. Students are either giving away the ending or not writing enough to hook the interest of their readers. We’ve decided to pair up students who wrote engaging and thorough reviews with those who need some extra assistance. These students will share their reviews aloud with one another and hold peer review discussions. We are hoping that the students will realize on their own that their reviews are missing some critical elements in order to be effective. I am considering doing my own voice thread on how to do a book review step-by-step. I think I may be a bit confused on exactly what we have to do. I’ll have to go back and revisit our list of requirements to be sure I am on the right track!