Introduction to Q Book Review Blog

Do you ever have a hard time helping a student choose a great book to read? My 4^th grade students ask me all the time for recommendations but the students don’t always love what I suggest.  Over the years I have done a variety of book review projects but I haven't found a way to consolidate everything into a streamline resource which the students can use independently to help them make a decision on a book to read. So, fast forward to this blog: Q Book Review! Q Book Review is a student-driven blog of book reviews.

Not only was I thrilled to finally find a way to help my students find books in the library and become even more excited about reading and writing, I was also going to blog with my class which had been something I had been interested in doing for some time.  First, the students read books of their choice and created a Paper Blog reviewing their book of choice which was displayed around the classroom.  The Paper Blog included pertinent information about the book, as well as a very short summary.  The students were also encouraged to write comments (only friendly and positive) for books they had previously read or wanted to read in the future.  Surprisingly, many students wanted to create additional Paper Blogs for books they read in the past, even though this required them to do this during their free time or at home. 

Now, that the students had become familiar with Paper Blogging, it was time to introduce the digital blog.  We discussed what information they enjoyed reading about on the Paper Blog and what type of information they might want to read about a book on our digital blog.  Together, we created a two part blog post: Part 1 – A basic book review and Part 2 – a creative activity showcasing their chosen book.  The students became even more interested to see that their feedback was actually being incorporated into the blog requirements.   Each child created a blog post about a book that they enjoyed and believed other children (and adults) might enjoy reading.  We discussed the importance of who could read their posts (their audience), and when they realized that anyone with access to the internet could read their posts including President Obama, the authors of their chosen book, or any child around the world!!!!

After much editing and revising, some sweat and tears, copious amounts of creativity and laughter, please enjoy the blog posts written by my fourth grade students.  At the moment, we are only sharing Part 1 (book review) and we will be adding Part 2 (creative activity) at a later date. We would love your comments but ask you to be respectful and appropriate.