What do you think?: Four County Students Write Reviews for Library

Tue, 06 Mar 2007 15:51:00 GMT

By Amy Worchuck

This slat wall gives space for photographs and bulletins to be hung.

There is going to be yet another addition to the Four County Career Center library. Earlier in the year, the library was fully renovated with new laptop chairs, new books, and much more. This increased student activity over 50%, but that’s not the end. This year, Mr. Hackett, the school librarian, approached Mrs. Hite, a Four County English teacher, and asked if she would have some of her students write book reviews for some of the books in the school library. Mrs. Hite then decided to add writing book reviews to her curriculum for her 7th period class. This class consists of Composition 1 students who are mainly juniors and some CISCO seniors. These students are earning college credit as well as high school credit in Mrs. Hite’s Composition 1 class. The students started this project about three months ago. The students were allowed to pick out any book they wished, but they only were given two weeks to read the book and an additional week to write the review. These reviews are very technical pieces of writing. They were graded on form, grammar, spelling, usage, and vocabulary, which means it’s not a piece of cake. The students are expected to give their opinions of the book in a tasteful manner, and include a short summary of the book’s content while also connecting it with something familiar students can connect to. Any additional reviews written by students at Four County are openly welcome and will also be added to the binder. The students in Mrs. Hite’s class have completed roughly 17 book reviews. There have been many different types of literature genres covered, including classic, fiction, reality, and even graphic novels. The reviews are going to be kept in the library for any student to access, stored in a binder that the Commercial and Graphic Art juniors have been designing. The reviews are, unfortunately, not ready for student viewing in the library yet. The purpose behind these student book reviews is to give students who are looking for something to read a chance to hear what other students have to say about the books. These reviews are intended to make it easier for students to choose reading material. Of course, not all the books are going to have reviews right away, but Mrs. Hite hopes to continue this project further next year. These book reviews might just be another chance at breathing life into Four County Career Center’s newly renovated library.