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It's enough to make a child writhe in agony; first, you're made to read a book that clearly has nothing to do with you or your future and then, you have to create opinions that need never have existed and THEN, you have to write about them - in an essay, no less. This is, of course, not including all the homework assigned in other classes.

The main purpose of doling out book reviews is to test your student's grasp of the book and its plot. Because the brain absorbs information in a non-linear fashion, learning improves with the number of skills you combine to complete a single task. You'll realize that there is no need to curb a child's natural enthusiasm because there are so many unconventional methods that will demand more from your students and in more exciting and appealing ways.

Below are some suggestions for you to pass out to your students to make their next book review assignment a creative, extra-productive exercise. Some of these ideas can also be ideally applied for other classroom projects or subjects.

1. Write a poem. If it can be said in prose, it can be said much better in poetry. They can do sets of limericks to tickle their and everybody else's funny bones, ballads for the more dramatically-inclined and free-style for those who can't think up enough rhymes. Add music and beats for plenty more gawp! They don't even need to use ink. They can cut and paste words from magazines, papers and cardboard boxes (although that will take a lot more time).

2. Draw. For the younger grades, kids might prefer drawing or painting a series of detailed pictures about the story in the book. Older ones can present their version of the book in a comic-book format. It will include details about the author, the context and an analysis of the sequence of actions either in separate narrative boxes or through an added character's thought and dialogue bubbles.

3. Mind-mapping. Mind maps are also an ideal tool for gathering and displaying the essence of the book on a sheet of paper - starting with the title at the centre of the sheet, draw branches from it, adding further keywords and plots and opinions under further sub-titles. Add colours and flourishes and little pictures to make your mind map more exciting.

4. Act it out. This will make a great activity for a group of kids and provide a huge source of entertainment for the class. Let them present a skit to the class and submit the written play. Alternately they can also make presentations on slides or PowerPoint and discuss their views with the class. This can open doors for a great classroom debate and encourage participation.

5. Presentations. This is like advanced Show-and-Tell. They can collect items - specify a minimum, say 10 - that are related to the story. Along with detailed explanations about the object on exhibit and its place in the book, they should give a short speech about the book, the author and how it affected them. At the end, they must be able to parry questions from the class and you. In an interesting twist, you can pass out chits to the class containing names of objects and each must be able to figure out their relevance in relation to the book.

Your students will have their own preferences. Let them choose their technique or better yet, suggest their own ideas to demonstrate their thoughts about the book. And if some just prefer to take the easy way out and write an essay, why then, they're welcome to do that as well!

Learn more about this author, Ayesha M.
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