Writing a Book Review Alexis A. Fruia March 16-20, th Grade English

Objectives Writing a Book Review  Understand what a book review is  Understand the form and content of a book review  Plan, Draft, Revise, Edit and Publish a book review

What is a Book Review?  A book review is a brief essay in which you retell important events in the story and relate an insight.  An insight is an important idea readers come to understand as a they read and think about a book or story.  Note: Forming an insight means understanding (or seeing) how ideas or events are related to one another.

Responding to Text Writing a Book Review Have you ever been carried away by a book? You start to read but soon lose tract of where you are and what time it is. For a while, nothing exists outside of the story, and you and the book soar together on a flight of fancy. Writing a response to a book helps you relive these flights of fancy. In this assignments, you will write about an insight you have discovered in a book or story. As you recap the important events, you’ll soar once more. Writing Guidelines Subject: A book or story Purpose: To share an insight Form: An essay Audience: Classmates

What does it mean to be “carried away” by a book?  Have you ever been so involved in a book you..  Didn’t hear your name being called?  Relived parts of the story after putting the book down?  Dreamed of being a character in the book or couldn’t wait to get back to the book.

Traits of a Response to Literature  Four traits to the development of the content and the form of your writing. These traits will help you focus during your prewriting, drafting, and revising.  Focus and Coherence  Organization  Development of Ideas  Voice

Understanding Your Goal

Writing a Book Review  The following essay was written by a student who tells how the events in the story Brothers lead to his understanding and insight. Page

Respond to Reading AAnswer the following questions about the sample response. Discuss your answers with a partner. Focus and Coherence 1.Which sentences explain the writers focus? Organization 2. How is the last paragraph like the first paragraph? Developing Ideas 3. What events from the story support the writers insight?

Prewriting  Prewriting is the first Step to the Writing Process. It involves selecting a book or story to write about, listing important events in the plot, writing a focus statement, and planning your paragraphs.  Keys to Effective Prewriting 1.Select a book, story or piece of expository write you have recently read and would like to write about. 2.Use a cluster bubbles to help you remember key details or events that support your center focus. 3. Write an opening and clear focus statement to guide your writing. 4.Review the events or ideas and pick those you can explain in detail to support your controlling idea. 5.Provide evidence from the text to demonstrate your understanding and support your controlling idea.

Suggestions  Look at the list of titles you created earlier as your think about a book or story to write about.  Remember the focus statement ( item 3) contains an insight or an understanding that you have formed about a book or story. You will learn more about writing a focus statement and developing an insight during prewriting.

Prewriting: Selecting a Topic