Trans-ACTIONS: Activities for Involving Students with Books.

Suggestions are given for over 50 activities which secondary students at many levels can use with fiction or non-fiction to provide opportunities to read, relate, reflect, and record their thoughts about a book. The primary goal is to help students gain insight into the literary elements that prompt their responses. Stated objectives for each activity are based on the literary elements of action, plot, or content; characterization; setting; theme; and tone, audience, or style. These materials are designed to enable students to engage more easily in the process of talking about books with other students and reshape and make visible their responses to books. Suggestions for grouping are given. Examples of objectives and activities include the following: "analyze the personality of the protagonist by preparing a case study that includes all the known evidence (appearance, age, occupation, principal actions, and their implications) for presentation to a panel of psychiatrists and social workers, or by using all the known evidence to compose a horoscope analysis of the protagonist"; and "demonstrate a process described in a work of nonfiction by creating a photo essay in which the steps of the process are illustrated by the student's own photographs and written captions." (MKM)