At the end of  last academic year I gave my students of 1E (Pre- intermediate learners) the following list of books to choose from as their summer read.

1. Benjamin Zephaniah, Face, Bloomsbury
2. Benjamin Zephaniah Teacher’s Dead , Bloomsbury
3. Roald Dahl  Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
4. Conan Doyle, The Return of Sherlock Holmes (Black Cat edizioni)
5. R. Louis Stevenson The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde (Black Cat edizioni)

At the beginning of the school year I posted the assignment of 15 alternative Book Reports the students could choose from. I was fed up with the usual book report and during my summer seminar at Harvard I was given this inspiring idea by professor Carla Beard whom I thank.

Here’s some of the great works done by my students.

• Use thewallmachine.com to make a fake Facebook page of a main character in the book. Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde by Susanna 🙂

Here’s also Riccardo’s fake FaceBook page, Francesca’s, Andrea C‘s  on the same novel.

Monica’s on Dracula.  Roberto’s on Face!! Bianca on Sherlock Holmes.

• Write a poem (or poems) related to characters or events in the book. Tommaso:

I am

Everyone has a good side and a bad,
but not everyone knows where is locked this latter
and they think that theirs is the better.
My good side,
beautiful in appearance and in soul,
polite and friendly.
My bad side,
inaccurate, wicked, selfish and instinctive.
It holds back the real me,
by now is part of me.
Two souls joint
I divide in half
through the fault of a drug.
Half man, half monster,
but this is me.

• Record an interview with a character from your book. Ask at least ten questions that will give the character the opportunity to discuss his/her thoughts and feelings about his/her role in the story (iMovie, Mailvu)  IInterview to doctor Jeckyll & Mr Hyde by Giorgia e Susanna. 🙂 Brilliant!   

It’s all by now. I’m very proud of my students!