Ever have to do an assignment for your English class and find yourself grunting or whining "UGH! Not again?!" Well, this is exactly how I felt about book reports. Although I found them fairly easy and simple to do, I did not wish to do them because they did not challenge me, at all. All we had to do was read the book/novel, and pretty much regurgitate what our teacher said in front of the class or our class discussion. It was all about setting, plot (beginning, middle, ending) and list and briefly describe a theme or two. I promised myself that I would never ask my students to write book reports because I want them to know and understand that they have more potential and more possibilities to do more than just summarize. Also, book reports (among many other kinds of summaries and analyses) can be found online, so it's a waste of time (hey! that rhymed!).
So I have always wondered what kinds of alternative assignments I can create for future lesson plans. In my READ-411 course, we were discussing the various technologies that can be used within each content area as well as content areas overall. One technological (and very educational!) tool I discovered was something called "Fakebook." This online tool allows students to become creative and dive into their imagination when creating a fake facebook page for a novel they are reading or even a certain character they want to analyze. When I was done with my research on this tool, I automatically thought of the Great American Novel (drum roll please!) The Great Gatsby! This novel seemed perfect (at the time because I had just finished reading it), especially if students want to analyze characters. Some may want to analyze Nick, others Jay Gatsby. Also, students who analyze he same character will not have the same profile picture, background, biography or favorite quotes, because it all depends on how the student perceives that character, which makes it all the more interesting! There is a 90 second tutorial online about this online tool which I included below. Check it out!
FAKEBOOK:
http://www.classtools.net/fb/home/page
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