Instead of having students write a book report, I will send the newspaper home over the weekend. Hopefully, this will transfer to their own writing. On Monday morning, students orally present their articles.
Oral presentations are part of third grade skills.
One of the third grade skills is understanding persuasive text. At centers, students pick out an advertisement and explain how persuasion is used to make readers want to buy that product. Students also understand word problems better if they compose their own problems. I have students use ads or the classified section to gather information in order to create their own word problems. They then solve the problems or exchange problems and have others at their group solve the problem.