Students type, format own work

Third graders at Straughn Elementary School have been doing book reports in an innovative way, thanks to an idea the school’s five third grade teachers came up with.

Each student had to pick his or her favorite book, type a book report, and decorate a T-shirt with different aspects of the book.

Each report had to include the book’s title, author, characters, a description of one character, the setting, a description of the setting, summary, the student’s favorite part and favorite quote, and his or her opinion of the book.

“I am very impressed with every student,” third grade teacher Leah Grimes said. “Just watching them from the beginning and seeing how much they have learned has been amazing.”

The students used Google documents to learn how to type and format their papers.

“We decided to do this because we want to prepare them for book reports in the higher grades,” Grimes said.

The book report was also a way to pick different reading material for the summer, Grimes said.

Catherine Kime did her book report on the “Dork Diaries.”

Her favorite quote from the book was “My heart was pounding from all the excitement.”

“I would recommend it to somebody who doesn’t fit in but tries,” Kime said. “I chose it because it is really funny and I like how it is about somebody who feels like they don’t belong but overcomes it.”

Lauren Wood did her book report on “The Land of Stories. “

Wood’s favorite part of the book is when the evil queen was captured and she told her backstory.

“I plan on reading more of the series,” Wood said. “I made a 90 on the Accelerated Reader test so I like it a lot. I chose the book because it is really funny and sad.”

Owen Harrison did his book report on “Minecraft The Island. “

His favorite quote from the book was “Never give up until you’re done.”

“It was funny and sad,” Harrison said. “I picked this book because it is filled with a lot of emotion.”

Assistant Principal Barry Wood said that he was very interested in their book reports.

“They had to learn how to format paragraphs and they had to type out rough drafts,” Wood said. “I don’t know of any third graders who are doing that.”

Grimes said that this would not have been possible without Kristin Rambo, Kimberly Studstill, Allison Eubanks, Christa Holley and Sheleia Smith