Other than lessons on the computer, what is your favorite assignment for kids to work on from home?  School time at home seems to me like the perfect opportunity for certain assignments that may be difficult to fit into the usual school day – such as book studies.

A book study seems especially suited to school at home.  Students may have more time available, or at least time in longer stretches (with no changing classes at the bell!).  Home, hopefully, is a more relaxed atmosphere – perfect for curling up with a book and really getting into it.

Home is also the perfect situation for students to work on books of their own choosing or books that you choose to fit the individual’s needs.  Some kids may have easy access to any book online, and will enjoy the chance to complete school work while reading a book of their own choice, while others might be more comfortable pulling out a book from the family bookshelf.  With other students, this may be the perfect time for you to guide them toward a book that you know would catch their interest – if they would just read it!

But, of course, kids do need a way to show you what they are learning from a book, and this is what I’ve been working on.  It’s a project that I have been meaning to tackle for a long time, a follow-up to my most popular freebie, my Story Elements Bookmark.  This new set is a much more detailed set of bookmarks each one tailored to a specific fiction or non-fiction genre.

There are 12 bookmarks in the set – five for various types of non-fiction or informational text, four for different genres of novels, and three for books with collections of poems, stories, or articles.

Each one is two pages long for printing either two-sided or on two separate sheets.  I choose this format because it allowed room to really address important elements of each book type.  Here is a picture of both sides of the Biography/Autobiography Bookmark.

And here you can see several of the bookmarks (or preview the set HERE).

I think these bookmarks make a really convenient book response form since kids can carry one around in their book to fill in bit by bit as they come across good information – no stopping and searching for the papers.  Also it can be a little reminder to write down information occasionally as they read instead of waiting until the very end.

If you use these bookmarks, or have used the freebie, I would love to hear what you think, or any suggestions.