Enhance Chinese Language Learning With Simple Chinese Book Reports

阅读报告 Chinese Book Report

The one thing that we adhere to strictly here at Mandarin Homeschool is our daily reading. Every night before the kids go to sleep, they spend 5-10 minutes reading their Chinese readers with me.

Now that their Chinese reading proficiency has improved, the kids are reading a wider range of books such as comic books, encyclopaedia and sometimes bilingual picture dictionaries. I am expanding on their Chinese activities and targeting more advanced Chinese language skills. And a Chinese book report is a short and simple activity that does just that.

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Why use a Chinese Book Report 阅读报告?

A really nice extension activity to reading is a Chinese book report 阅读报告 which can develop higher order learning, and more advanced academic skills such as

Writing skills – Obviously you child has to write the report, so this will help them to practice their writing skills, spelling, punctuation and grammar.
Comprehension skills – Understanding a story is vastly different from reading. You can read a book and not know what it is about. Hence, a reading report can help you to assess and gauge their level of comprehension, what they understand and how much they understand.
Critical thinking skills – Your child is not only writing in his/her own words, he/she also has to organise their thoughts and opinions coherently. He/she has to summarise, reflect, evaluate and recall the story and explain why they like or did not like the story.
Social skills – You can have a real discussion around the book with your child. Especially as your child gets older, you can delve deeper into the morals and intricate messages within the story.

Versions of the Chinese Book Report 阅读报告

I created two reading reports for my children, a basic version and an advanced version in two Chinese language options. Download the one best suited for your child, depending on his/her age and Chinese proficiency level.

How to use the Chinese Book Report 阅读报告

After reading a story with your child, have him/her summarise the story in his/her own words. Discuss what they like or did not like about the book, rate the book, which character they like, what the meaning of the story is etc.

There are two main components to the reading report – writing and drawing. I find that drawing a picture is a nice way to personalise a report, and can help children who struggle with words to present their thinking in a different way. Hence, I included that component within the reading report.

Here are some examples of how I used the Chinese book report with my children. We read one of the 《屁屁侦探》Butt Detective books with my older 2 (aged 8 years old and 7 years old). My older 2 drew the pictures first and then we discussed the storyline together and came up with the sentences in Chinese.

As their first language is English, I had to help them with some of the more advanced Chinese characters and phrases, and also translate some words from English to Chinese, but overall, they were able to summarise the story in their own way.

Plus, they did all that Chinese writing, which is a feat!!!

For my youngest (aged 5 years old), I used the Chinese book report with the Basic Chinese 500 readers that she was currently using to practice her Chinese daily reading.

She just copied the text off the book, which is appropriate for her level. I think she did a pretty good job of her copy writing.

Download the Chinese Book Report Template

You can download this template for personal use, and share the page link but please do not distribute the template freely. Thank you for respecting my personal work.