Boobis Logo IRAs— Independent Reading
Activities



Responding Creatively to Your Reading

Directions: Performance Standard E1a requires that all students read 25 books each year. Performance Standard E2b asks that we respond to what we read. After you’ve found and read a book you liked, choose an activity from the list below to submit to me. Neatness, spelling, and grammar count so revise and proofread! Be creative and enjoy!


1. Create a postcard of the setting of your book and write a letter from there, either as yourself visiting or a character in the story.


2. Create a map or floorplan of the setting of your book. Be sure to include the locations of important events, a map legend, and make it attractive. Also include a paragraph or two explaining the map or other details from the story.


3. Make an acrostic poem of your book’s title, using words that describe your book. Then write a brief explanation of why you chose the words you did.


4. Write a script for a TV news report of an important event in the story. Include interviews with the characters involved in the event.


5. Create a radio commercial for this book in which you try to convince listeners to buy and read your book. Be creative and feel free to make up a radio name for yourself.


6. Compare and contrast this book with another book you have read that had similar characters, events, or themes. Write an introduction, body, and conclusion to discuss how the two books are similar and different.


7. Choose an important quote from the book and explain why this quote is important. Who says the quote? What is the situation? How does this quote relate to events in the story?


8. Discuss the author’s craft. What things did the author do to make this book good (or not)? Be sure to include detailed examples of things the author did well or could have done better.


9. Create a dictionary of important words from your book that the reader should pay attention to and understand while reading. These can be everyday words to know or words of special importance in the story.


10. Draw a 4-panel cartoon (storyboard) summary of the story. Include dialogue and details from the story. Add color and excitement to make it BBB ("bulletin-board beautiful")!