Technology and Book Reports

Having grown up with the boring book report, five paragraphs, 5-7 sentences each, include the author, title, and summary, I have always wondered how we could make this more interesting, more engaging. Not all children like to read as is, and having them then complete a report that bores them is not helping the situation. In my fieldwork class I was lucky enough to see two different ways to create a book report that got the students involved as well as accomplishing the same thing. Not only were they able to read their book, like it, and understand it, but they had a fun time creating an assignment that was going to be worth a large grade.
These students had to create a PowerPoint in which they told the class the name of the boo, the author, the summary, themes, their favorite parts, and feelings that were seen throughout the book. At the end of their PowerPoint they were given creative liberty. Presenting these PowerPoint's on the SmartBoard gave them more liberty than they would have with simply projecting the information on a screen. One create idea that I saw in a few classes was the idea of connecting vocabulary. The students put one column of words and another column of definitions. They students in the audience were picked to come up to the SmartBoard, use the SmartBoard pen and draw a line between the word and the definition that they thought matched. If the pairing was incorrect the presenter was then able to erase the line and let another student try. This taught the students vocabulary, during a presentation, that incorporated technology. Thinking about it from a pedagogical stand point and out push to live up to the technology we have, I was intrigued and through it was a successful project. What impressed me even more was that the students were coming up with their creative idea's thinking about how they could use the SmartBoard to their advantage. 
I was able to see the same teacher, with another class, do a book report but in an entirely different way. This project was called "Book in a Box". The students were to collect items that had to deal with the book and present them to the class explaining their significance. The students loved this because it involved very little writing, they were able to be creative and they enjoyed showing the other students what they had found.
This simply proved one thing to me. There are always two ways to do things. Teachers are able to incorporate technology in amazing ways. Teachers are also able to have students go back in time without technology and find things in the physical world rather than the digital world. They could also turn to the technology of pen and paper and have students write papers. These two projects were not only fun for the students but it made grading fun and easy for the teacher. Technology in classrooms and with students is such a great tool if executed properly and with regards to the students that you, as a teacher, have within your classroom.