College-level "book reports" -- are they possible?

February 5, 2008 6:14 PM

I'm teaching a feature writing class, and I'd like to require my students to read a nonfiction book by the end of the semester -- ala Tracy Kidder or John McPhee. I'd like them to do some sort of "book report" or presentation to the class at the end of the semester on the book they chose -- how do I make this assignment not lame?

I guess I could just simply ask them to summarize the book, talk about whether they liked it, maybe have them copy some passages and share with the class about particular writing techniques they picked up from reading the book. But that seems pretty broad. I don't want to get too dorky on them and make them put together a television commercial or something about the book -- too junior high. How can I make this both a substantial and fun assignment that will also benefit other students? I'd like the presentations to be about 10-15 minutes each. I'm picturing these going like a mini book-club, but the difference is only one person has read the book.

posted by printchick to education (16 comments total)

I mentioned this in my title, but I should mention in my posting that this is a college level class.
posted by printchick at 6:14 PM on February 5, 2008

You could divide the class into pairs and ask them to choose a non-fiction book with a strong message. Then ask one person in each pair to argue for the message of the book and the other person to argue against (let them decide who does each side) and hold a short 15 minute mini-debate in class. Let the other students pose questions to the presenters. We had a number of such debates in one of my college classes (on biomedical ethics) and they were always a lot of fun and very spirited.
posted by peacheater at 6:20 PM on February 5, 2008

I think that your students would get the most out of this assignment if you just ask them to speak for two minutes or so about what its about and what they did and didn't like about it. I am always on the lookout for books to read and this would be a great way to find one!
posted by thebrokenmuse at 6:27 PM on February 5, 2008

As a former journalism student, I think your students might get the most of picking passages that they think are particularly well written and explaining why they were good, and also having to find some to hold up as poorly written (or at least not as good as the others). Maybe finding examples of bias would be decent too.

Alternatively, an effective technique some of my teachers used was to have students teach a "workshop" to the other students on something they read.
posted by drezdn at 6:50 PM on February 5, 2008

WorkingOnaNewMe - she wasn't asking for help with a grammar assignment. Pedantry about grammar on the internet is pointless.

Printchick, as a recent English major, I have to point out that your initial suggestion does indeed sound like junior high. Annals of the Former World by John McPhee was a very enjoyable read for me (recreationally, as an undergrad) but definitely appealed mostly to my nerd side. I like peacheater's suggestions. You could also consider having students read two books that conflict in some way (different perspectives on a historical event or cultural thing?) and then try to resolve the matter or argue that one interpretation is more accurate or useful.
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 6:51 PM on February 5, 2008

What about having the students present a preface/introduction that they would write for the book?
posted by Airhen at 6:56 PM on February 5, 2008

Have each student pretend to be the author for five minutes or so and field questions--any questions--from the class, about the book, why they wrote it, how they wrote it, etc.
posted by John of Michigan at 7:10 PM on February 5, 2008 [1 favorite]

Have each person choose a 5 or 10 p (or so) selection from their book, which everyone will read before their presentation. It should be something people can understand without reading the rest, or the student should supply a few notes with the necessary background. You can talk about what kinds of excerpts will work best for this.

Then the student can hold a book club type discussion. What did students enjoy, what made them want to read more? What didn't work -- too dull, too confusing, etc? Was it good when the writer injected himself as a character, or was that bad? What stylistic choices did the writer make and why, and did they work or not? etc.

You want them to be thinking about the structure of the book, editorial level decisions rather than just sentence-level writerly decisions. Excerpting is one way to put attention on this. Another way would be to make part of their presentation be this kind of analysis of the book. How is this book built? Does that decision work? etc.

The main thing, it seems to me, is to get them away from doing a report on just "I liked this, I didn't like that", and get them into doing more analysis and thinking about decisions the writers made.
posted by LobsterMitten at 7:51 PM on February 5, 2008

Why not gather a big pool of 20 or so authors who write so passionately and accessibly about their chosen subjects that they're compelling to the general reader? Challenge your students to pick a subject they're not especially interested in. Easy stuff. Tony Hiss for urban planning, Jonathan Kozol for sociology, Steven Jay Gould for biology, Witold Rybczynski for architecture, etc.

Did the author challenge your worldview and get you all fired up about a subject you never thought you'd care about? How did they break down an arcane subject that you didn't understand when you picked up their book, and make you understand it? How did they manage to make their pet interest so compelling that the general reader couldn't bear to put it down?

What is the common thread with these authors? How can your students capture that passion?

That's all I've got.
posted by freshwater_pr0n at 8:04 PM on February 5, 2008

as a teacher, I like Post It book reports- hard to plagiarize, novel format and useful in discovering patterns and themes in the book.
posted by flowerofhighrank at 11:00 PM on February 5, 2008

What about an open ended criticism? You could choose one or two criticism styles (literary/comm/whatever, I'd lean towards comm since it focuses on the message which is going to be important in journalism), take half a session to teach them to the class and then let them loose. A criticism confines them to a specific set of criteria but allows for a broad range of (possibly fun) presentation styles while still feeling very 'academic' and being beneficial to the audience.
posted by JRGould at 11:47 PM on February 5, 2008

Make them read The New Kings of Nonfiction, which is excellent, and then ask them to create a short nonfiction story in the same vein.
posted by awesomebrad at 1:13 AM on February 6, 2008

I think the point of good nonfiction is not that it's "well written" (stylistically). I think the point is more often that it is well structured, and that a compelling plot has materialised out of the chaotic and ragged fabric of real life. An assignment that helps future feature writers would be an assignment that forces them to think about structure and plot - any literary technique really, and why they are used the way they're used.

For a good book to discuss, I can recommend 'The Last Cowboy' by Jane Kramer. It's short (your students will appreciate that), but it's also wonderfully paced, well researched, intelligently plotted. For structure, David Simon's 'Homicide' is second to none.

Another good exercise would be to compare a macro-feature to a micro-feature. Take 'Guests of the ayatollah' or 'Killing Pablo' by Mark Bowden (international scope, world politics) and compare it to his 'Finders keepers' or 'Doctor Dealer' (one guy whose life spirals out of control).

What are the advantages of exploring a 'big' story, and what are the disadvantages? How does the author try to overcome these by use of literary techniques.

Another one: compare a non fiction book to the original feature that inspired it: what parts of the story are left out of the feature that are fleshed out in the book? Why? Which parts left your students feeling hungry for more? Which stories are untold in the book? How would they research them? Why didn't the author do it?

I've gone all hobbyhorsical again, I see, but you get the idea.
posted by NekulturnY at 2:28 AM on February 6, 2008

One of the things that stand out about Kidder and McPhee are how they are able to make you know who someone is. Give each student a name of a member in class (not pair work), and assign them the task to cop the style of either Kidder or McPhee and have them introduce their assignee to you. Say, a 1 hour interview with a 2-3 page sketch. That will be about 4-8 hours of work. Maybe toss in a reflection paragraph in the conclusion.

If you want to make it a little crazy, give each assignee a card with an affectation or personality quirk that needs to be presented in the interview.

Now Kidder (can't say for McPhee) learns who people are by shadowing them for MONTHS at a time. You're not going to get that in a 1 hour, but you can find out how much they got out of reading their books by their ability to mimic it.
posted by plinth at 5:51 AM on February 6, 2008

Since you're working in non-fiction you might have the reader start by writing a brief essay about what they think the author will be telling them, followed by a brief essay explaining what the author actually told them. You walk away from every book with a little more knowledge and the art is in how it helps you grow.
posted by ptm at 5:57 AM on February 6, 2008

i did "book reports" in grad school, so... i don't think it's a bad thing. the difference with your level vs. elementary school is that they're not just trying to prove to the teacher they read the book. the goal is to share information from the book that they think will be useful to other students in regards to the topic of your class. i don't think that's "lame" at all. you don't have time to read and discuss 50 books a semester, so having 20 students each read a different book and present on it (5-10 minutes) will allow the other students to learn what other books might be useful for them to read in their spare time.

i suggest requiring a handout (provided by the presenter) of some kind that has info like the title, author, key themes, awesome quotes, etc. for the other students' reference
posted by misanthropicsarah at 6:39 AM on February 6, 2008