English+9+Book+Reports

English 9 Book Reports and Daily Silent Reading: Book reports Over the course of the semester, you will read four different novels of your own choice and complete a book report on each one. These book report assignments are posted below, along with their due dates. Each book report is worth 65 marks. Please note that they get harder as the semester goes on; for the last two you must write essays!

Please note: If you do not hand in your book report by the due date, you can expect to spend your lunch hours with me EVERY DAY until the book report is complete. If it is not complete within a week, other consequences may be added, such as after-school detentions, Saturday School and/or discussion with your parents or administration. Also, the 10% off per day late rule applies to book reports just like any other assignment. After two weeks, you cannot get more than 0 on the assignment, but you must still complete it!

You may feel free to hand the book reports in early if you read faster than one book per month. Bear in mind that I expect that these novels be at your reading level. If you are a weak reader, there are some excellent high-interest/low vocabulary books in the school library that I can recommend. If you are not sure if the book you choose is acceptable, please check ahead of time. I will not accept book reports on books significantly below grade level.

Please be sure that you have parental approval to read the novels you choose.

Here are the four book report assignments: Each book report is out of 65 marks: five for the basics of three characters, setting and theme, and THIRTY MARKS EACH for the paragraphs or essays that show analysis. The 30 marks is awarded based on the standard English Rubric for ATSS, which can be found on the How Marking Works page.

BOOK TALK (aka Book Report 4). Assignment is HERE . Book Talks will be due the last week of May. The rubric for this assignment was handed out and discussed in class, but I am also posting it here for your reference. Note that you must do a visual to accompany your talk. If the whole talk is more than 5 minutes long, you might want to edit (remember: concise!!). You MAY NOT do a Book Talk on the same novel as another student in your class. Daily Silent Reading Every day, you are responsible for bringing something to read for the first 10-15 minutes of class. While we may occasionally skip a silent reading day because our planned day is packed full, most days will involve silent reading. One reason that we do this is that it gives you some class time to "work on" your book reports, so I suggest that you bring your independent book report novel to class if you are finding it hard to get the reading done fast enough at home on your own.

You are given marks each day for Silent Reading. Some of these are for preparedness--did you bring a book to read?--while some are for behaviour: did you actually READ? These are EASY MARKS! Show up, with a book, and read for 10-15 minutes! Don't throw the marks away!

You may choose to read something other than your book report novels, however:
 * You must be reading.
 * Whatever you are reading must be in English and at your reading level.
 * You may not be reading a textbook (do your homework on your own time).
 * I prefer that you read fiction (but non-fiction is acceptable). Be aware, however, that you may not write a book report on a non-fiction book; your book reports are designed for NOVELS (not short story collections, poetry, biographies, collections of essays, etc). While you may read these genres for silent reading, you cannot use them for your book reports.


 * Please note: daily silent reading does NOT end when you have handed in your book reports! You will continue to accumulate DSR marks until the end of the semeseter. **