You have spent the second part of the semester reading the book of your choice. Now you need to give a review of it.  The purpose of this review is to let other, current and future, ELI High Advanced Reading students know what you think of this book.

It will be a great deal like the written summary review you wrote of To Kill a Mockingbird, but this one will be a spoken review.

Plan for it to take about 5 minutes to deliver. It should have two basic parts.

1. The first part of a summary review is, as the name implies, a summary of the book, and
2. the second part presents your opinion of the book.

When you prepare your review use the following guidelines: 

Introduction  (~30 seconds)

• Start by saying the name of the book you are reviewing as well as the author's name.
  • BRING your book to class this day so that you can also show us the book
    
• Next, tell us your overall opinion of the book in one or two sentences (this will be the main idea of your review). 

Summary of the Story  (~1 minute)

• Tell the main plotline of the book. Tell us the main events. Remember this a summary , not a paraphrase, of the story: cut out details and focus on main ideas/events.
  
• Use the present tense. 

Review  (~3 minutes)

• This is really the 'heart' of your presentation since this is where you explain your opinion of the book.
  
• Have a clear criteria system.
  
• You must use the following in your criteria system: 
• vocabulary -- was it too hard, good, too easy? 
  • give at least three concrete examples to support your judgement
• length -- was it too long, just right, too short? 
• interest level -- was the topic, theme & tone of the story things you believe other ELI students would find interesting?
  • Within this section, you must identify the
    • major topics of the story & explain if these make the story interesting or not and why
      
    • theme - what "lesson" does the main character and/or reader gain? Is this a worthwhile theme for ELI students to read?
      
    • tone - is the narrative language formal or informal, pessimistic or optimist? (You can choose other labels for the tone.) What effect does this have on a reader who is a high level ELI student?

The Conclusion (~30 seconds) 

• Tie up everything by restating your overall opinion of the book.
• Tell us how many stars out of 5 that you would give the book

This is an informal presentation. Other than showing us your book, you do not need visual aids or handouts. Simply speak your review to us (note that I said  S P E A K, not read).  Your goal is to let me and the other students know if the book your read is one we should read or not. We are counting on you for good advice!

Laurie Miller
Email:llmiller@gmu.edu

Last Update: March 2011