Sharing and Analyzing Stories in a New Way

We’re turning the traditional book report on its head and giving it a 21st century twist. Students can create a video, a podcast or other media to review books, poems, and even songs.

Find Your Story

Adapt written essays into video form, explore culture and history, and invite students to explore their own tastes and interests in the options below. Or choose to adapt them all into a project of your own.

A Personal Favorite

Students can chose a book they’ve read, a story that a relative has passed to them, or an original work. Create a video, podcast, or other media that summarizes the story, analyzes what was successful and unsuccessful about it, and explains why that story in particular resonated with the student.

Choosing Within a Theme

Educators can provide a reading list or a broad theme for students to choose a work from. Invite them to review the story as it fits into the theme’s bigger picture using lenses like time period, perspective, and reliability of the narrator.

Takes on the Same Work

Explore how the same work can affect people in different ways by inviting students to create honest reviews of one story read by the class. Give students the opportunity to share why they did or did not like a book, and the tools to research and explain why they formed that opinion.

Taking Inspiration

Students in Kristie Horst’s class from Tomek-Eastern Elementary School in Fenton made a series of videos reviewing books they read in class using a “book club” model and a bracket for “March Book Madness.”

Media Tips and Tricks

Make sure you’ve visited the Getting Started page to familiarize yourself and your students with video and recording practices.

Showcase Your Work

Once your video or collection of videos is complete, share it with us and we’ll feature it on the Michigan Learning Channel YouTube channel! Just send us an email at MLC@dptv.org.