A go-to activity for my middle school Language Arts classroom was our Book Report and Character Spotlight One Pagers. This activity was a dream in terms of its flexibility and knack for capturing student interest. More importantly, it helped us to assess student reading comprehension in a way that was engaging and fun for students.

So what exactly does it look like?

Book Report

The first section of the resource has students staying mostly surface level with the book they’ve read.

These two pages give students the opportunity to briefly describe the book. Students will share the basics like title, author, and the book’s synopsis. They will also jot down a short description of some of the major characters and complete a plot map of the story.

The last section of these two pages is the Book Review. This is my personal favorite. In our current world of social media, students are often super familiar with reviews. They can get creative and provide feedback on the book they’ve just read.

Character Spotlight

This section is where students get to dig a little deeper. They’re going to pull out various things from the text to really shine a light on who their character is and what they’ve gone through.

Here are some of the details they’ll share:

1. personality traits and important characteristics
2. wise thoughts or phrases the character has said
3. notable struggles and conflicts

The second page of the character spotlight is always my favorite though. Here is where your students share how they’ve connected with their character. They’ll be challenged to think deeply in order to identify why the character inspires them, what qualities the character has that they themselves would like to emulate, and what lessons they’ve learned from the character.

One-Pagers

All of the information they gather in the book report and character spotlight sections of the activity are able to be transferred and transformed into the content for their one-pager.

Students can format their one-pager as they prefer or use one of the ten different templates included in the resource. These templates can be printed out or used digitally too.

So essentially, when they’ve finished the four pages, most of the leg work has been completed. Then the real fun begins!

Here you can identify what parts you want included in the one pager or you can let students choose what they think is most important to share with others about the story and their focus character.

Teacher Tools

Digital or PDF

For starters, this resource can be printed out and done old-school paper and pencil style OR you can opt to use the fully populated Google Slides version!

The PDF can be printed in color or in black and white. The Google Slides version is great because the text boxes are pre-loaded and ready to go. Plus, each text page of the activity has additional instructions and guiding points for students.

Want the best of both worlds? Do the book report and character spotlight digitally and the one pager on paper! You can print out the ten different one pager templates and students can choose their favorite!

Project Overview & Completed One Pager Models:

The google slides resource provides a thorough overview of what the students will complete throughout this project. Additionally, every single page of the project has been done in advance – including a finalized one pager in digital format AND in paper format.

These models are the hidden (or not so much) gem of this resource. Students can see EXACTLY what is expected and how it can look when it all comes together.

I would highly recommend YOU doing one of your own too! Not only does it give you the opportunity to put yourself in the role of the student to see what the challenges are of the assignment, but it also means you’ll have an additional model to share with your students for reference.

Assessment:

Last, but certainly not least, the resource comes with a rubric and feedback form. You can use the rubric I’ve already created for you OR make your own with the templates I have provided.

Either way, when students are able to see EXACTLY how they will be graded it GREATLY improves their chances of completing the project with confidence and enjoyment.

Why else is this resource great?

It’s simplicity and flexibility of course! I purposefully designed it so that it could be paired with numerous texts. While this supports student choice, it also supports efficiency for teachers when it comes to introducing, facilitating, and assessing the project.

Additionally, the design of the resource allows teachers to decide what parts of the project to use and how exactly to use them. For example, students could engage in a book study and complete the first two pages together, while branching off on their own to analyze different characters for the character spotlight and one pager sections of the project.

This makes differentiation of the project a breeze and greatly increases its accessibility for students.

Not to mention the simple, clear-cut design that helps students identify and synthesize the most important and salient aspects of their story and characters.

My ultimate favorite aspect of this resource though is the 2nd page of the character spotlight section. What is any of this REALLY for anyway? This page guides students in connecting the work they’ve done to how it MATTERS for them NOW! This may be the single, most impactful part of the entire project.

This resource is a fantastic way for students to demonstrate their reading comprehension. Better yet, their completed one pagers can be displayed in the classroom, hallway, or even during parent-teacher conferences as a way of celebrating all of the learning and hard work that went into their creation!

If you’d like to get your hands on this resource, simply click on the button here or any of the images in this blog.

I’d love to hear about how the resource is working for you. Don’t be afraid to reach out or tag me on Insta!