From our whole group book review mini-lessons and from our independent reading immersion and close study of chosen book reviews, we've created this noticings chart of this genre.

In our first grade unit of study focusing on reviews, we noticed that most reviews have these components...

*Basic Information

*A Rating System

*A Detailed Description that included Author's Opinion

*Illustrations/Photographs/ Visual Aid Depicting object of review

Below is a checklist that each group used to create thier book of reviews.  Each group chose either books, restaurants, movies, products, or places to review. 

Review Book Checklist

  Re-Read Your Review Group Book. 

Check to see if it includes…

 Front Cover (title, picture, all authors’ name)

Each author has their own review page that matches the groups review topic.

Each page has a review with sentences giving the author’s description and opinion of the item they are reviewing (restaurant, destination, book, or product purchased).

Each page has a rating system to show the author’s opinion about the item being reviewed.

Each page has colorful illustrations and/or fonts used to make the text attractive.

Each page has been checked for spelling.

Cathy Rode's Noticing Chart for CheapTickets.com          

I am going to use this as a model of how a person creates a review after they have used a product.  I will then let them read other reviews online for bookmarked sites that they can create their own noticing chart and then create a review.

-I read the reviews that others left for the same place

-I looked at all the online travel sites to compare and contrast

-I looked at maps to find the "just-right" location for a family

-took several days of research

-look for places that match your needs

-used a 5 star rating

-used personal knowledge to write the review

-user-friendly

-affordable prices in nice hotels

Noticings Chart for Dine.com

Online Review

1. Notice: -review for restaurants, user friendly, includes telephone number, address, map, average price, and reviews

-uses 5 star rating (can have half a star for review)

-place on website where you can build your own restaurant review if not listed

-has listed top reviewers (thorough reviews from these people)

1. Talk: -user friendly website encourages you to come back, simply type your city or what type of cuisine you would like and it pulls up all of the information you could ever need including a map, quick/easy to read reviews that are helpful

1.  Name: user-friendly online review for restaurants

1. Connect: This reminds me of metromix because it’s restaurant reviews. It also uses 5 stars to rate local restaurants. I like how you can search by cuisines and also by sections of Greenville (downtown).

1. Envision: I would love to see a review on local grocery stores. It could include, prices and customer services. Definitely important to me! And it would hopefully give Publix a big boost! 

online review for dine.com

for Cammie Price

Kimberly Barnette: Noticings Chart for Metacritics (online media review)

Noticings:

• 5 sections on site (movies, DVD, music, games, TV)
• Each section has top leaders, and then all around top leaders
• There are viewer reviews
• Critique reviews
• summary of movie, game, etc.
• there is even a forum to blog and post comments

I liked this website because it is very informative.  I like that it shows you both what real people think and what the "important" people think about it.  It was very easy to work through and you can search for anything as well as look at the top 10 picks. 

Amber McDonald

Noticings Chart for Science Magazine (Carolina Biological)

Noticings:

~Each new section has a review from a customer

~Each review has a five star system

~Each review has a customer comment, where they are located and what type of educator they are

This was appealing to me as a classroom teacher because I am able to see what others think of a product before I consider making a purchase. I am a science person and love to have things in my class, but it is always nice to have someone say Yay or Nay to a product before I make a purchase!

Noticings for Spaghetti Book Club by Bonnie Cumbo 

• reviews are written by kids in kid friendly language
• students write a short overview of the book
• students share their favorite part
• students tell why they recommend the book
• students add their own illustration at the top of  something happening in the book
• there are many popular books reviewed which would appeal to most students 
• the reviewer does not tell every detail of the book which hooks the potential reader
• there are no spelling or punctuation errors 

Commonsense.org by Amber Pitts

                I choose the website common sense.org to use as a mentor for my book review. Here are some things I noticed…

• ·         Rated with 1-5 stars
• ·         Listed appropriate age that the material (book, game, movie, websites, etc.) would be best for from toddler to over 17
• ·         Rated the material based on violence, sexual content, language, consumerism, drinking drugs or smoking.
• ·         Lists publisher’s information for easy access if you choose to purchase it & also had a color photo of the front of the book.
• ·         Products can be reviewed by adults, educators, and kids
• ·         “What parents need to know” section and “What parents can talk about” section

Noticings Chart for Alan Brown.com by Lindsay Blanton

Alan Brown.com is a website for book information and book reviews. 

Noticings - author created the website for students to have easy access to book reviews

user-friendly

great links for other information

side tabs for writing tips and reading information

examples of related webistes 

Author created and maintains website for kids to use - age appropriate (website says 8-14 years of age)

scholastic.com by Kim Sutherland

I selected scholastic.com and this is what I noticed.

• colorful
• affordable books, software etc.
• books are grouped by age groups/reading levels. for ex. preschool or HS (high school) etc.
• web based and easy access for parents, educators, and kids
• high interest books for any reader
• convenient and user friendly
• offers quick links to other sites
• lesson plan opportunites
• book sets grouped by authors (affordable) in paperback or hardback 

 http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10011984-last_song/

Rotten Tomatoes Recommended By: April Camp

Movie trailers and reviews of new and upcoming movies. Here you can find out about new movies to see if they were able to live up to the tomatoerator. It is really a fun site and very interactive and always you to give your thoughts about the movies with ease.

It is easy to use and navigate through, a variety of views are expressed to let you see all points of view, eye catching site and gives trailers or short clips from the movie to let you preview before you pay a fortune to go and see it, lets you find movie times and locations. This site is an all in one site giving more than just reviews.

Movie Review by Kimberly Trott

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/

The Chicago Sun Times movie review section by Roger Ebert is the best movie review site that I have seen.  I use it to check out a movie before I spend $8:50 on a ticket.  There is a star review rating for the quality of the movie.  What I like best is the detailed description of the movie and Mr. Eberts personal remarks about the movies quality.  There is a thumbs up or down section.  There are reviews of old movies and little discussion pieces on various movie stars.

Restaurant Review by Renee Phillips

Metromix.com

I used a review on Trio Brick oven Pizza in Greenville SC.

• Gave restaurant information like address, phone, and website
• Gave hours of operation 
• Rating Scale
• Included information about the food, decor, service, and cost. We found that these were in almost every review that we read,
• Used an introduction and conclusion
• Used heading
• Photographs
• Imagery
• Figurative language.

Noticing Chart for Unit of Study with 5th grade

Noticing Chart

• Interesting usage of punctuation and sentence structure
• Good examples of figurative language and vivid vocabulary
• Reviews for “fancy” restaurants were written for a more educated audience (big words)
• Paragraphs were short and often did not indent
• Told what made the food good and not just that it was good
• Talked about atmosphere
• Talked about the menu (what kind of food)
• Talked about price
• Talked about service
• The more expensive restaurants told you how to dress

Book Review Unit of Study by kim Wells

CLASS BOOK REVIEW NOTICINGS CHART FOR OH, YUCK! BOOK REVIEW

BOOK REVIEW NOTICINGS CHART

Mentor text for whole class instruction was a review of Oh Yuck! The

Encyclopedia of Everything Nasty by Joy Masoff

1. Startling fact-that makes the reader want to find the book immediately and read it.

2. Opinion of the content

3. Explains why he likes it

4. Uses quotes from the book -

5. Tone of review is obviously enthusiastic(however, depends on if reviewer LIKES the book)

6. Interesting punctuation, quotations marks”“, dashes--, exclamation points! ParenthesisO,

7. Invented language (i.e. “grossities”) 

8. Use of slang (blow chunks)

9. Awareness of audience by using terms kids know (see #8)

10. Hyphenated words

11. Rating system

12. Lists all the things in favor

13. Lists a couple of things he would have done differently

14. Talks about text features