This year, when you are looking for ideas that go beyond the boring book report or essay, but you still want students to read informational text and present what they learned, try one of these ten ideas. Trust me, they will be happy with the creative approaches and you’ll be happy when it’s time for them to present them to you and the class, and when it comes time for you to grade them all.

1. A Biography Block (or Block for Any Info)

2. Brochures for book reports, biographies, destinations, and lots of other things. 

There are a lot of people offering free as well as paid brochure templates with great ideas for how to use them. A couple that I liked were a free book report brochure by TPT seller Student Savvy , and a free travel brochure by Literacy in Focus below. They show you how to turn book reports or other English assignments into brochure form instead, which is so much more fun & readable!

3. Pyramids 

1) Researching a Dog Breed’s Character Traits and History FREE WebQuest: In this free lesson, students are guided step-by-step (so no prep) tor research dog breeds and input information into a premade Google sheet. Then, they can choose one breed of their choice to present.

2) Researching “Why Do We Need Vitamins and Minerals Anyway?” FREE WebQuest: Students are always hearing about getting proper nutrition but most have no clue even what vitamins and minerals do. This helps them find out. Then, they can each select a different nutrient and present it on a pyramid. That way there are a variety of pyramids around the room teaching everyone about different nutrients.

4. Wax Museum: They do this at my kids’ school every year and it is a huge hit that draws crowds. Students do a biography report with a visual display, then on presentation day, they stand there as if they are wax figures. One option is for people to pay a penny, or quarter, or any amount (as a fundraiser) to get them to talk. They are dressed up like the people, talk like the people, talk about themselves. What a great idea. There is even an option to have it run through an entire school day and have the younger grade students rotate through. All the kids love it! Here is my daughter dressed as John McCain and her friend was Wayne Gretzky (in this modern age of defying gender stereotypes):

6. Poster (a.k.a. Infographic): Again, keep in mind that just the act of making something with your hands and writing stores the information in your mind long-term and attaches good feelings to it. So, although it might seem like a waste of time and you might wonder what the point is if it is something you are going to throw away, just remember this, as research has proven. Think back to the memories you have of school assignments. The ones you still remember (including the basic information) are the ones you made by hand! Here’s a couple that students can create after learning “The Science Behind Ice Cream” in my FREE ELA or Literacy in Science informational text and tasks:

And this one goes well with my FREE “Why There Are Seasons” informational text & tasks for ELA or Literacy in Science:

9. Collage: Who doesn’t like collages? Nobody. Which kids don’t know how to make a collage? Hardly any. These can be done physically or digitally and are a great way to show a lot of visuals at once. For example, these look intriguing (the one about Lincoln is an Etsy item, but could be done by a student):

10. Video: If this sounds scary, have no fear. Kids are making quick videos about everything these days, so just ask them for ideas. Again, a good option for distance learning.

How about save this pin to your “Researching and Presenting” or “Presentations in ELA” Board so that you can come back to this post again?