Reading Logs for First Grade February 2018

Allow's talk about reading logs for a moment.  Yes, I know I have gone downwardly this path before, but it bears repeating because non a week goes by without someone asking about them.  Asking how they can speak to their child's teacher about the reading log they accept at present been assigned.  Asking how they tin can convince their colleagues that they are non needed.  Asking how they can change their own practices.

Equally someone who used to believe in reading logs and assigned them myself, I get the draw.  A style to cheque to meet if kids are really reading outside of our classrooms – sign me up.  We veil it in reasons such equally to go a lifelong reader yous need to read for pleasure.  If I am not around to encounter that then I demand proof.  And withal, reading logs is every single year one of the top reasons that my students hate reading.

As a parent, I take seen the damage firsthand.  When presented with a reading log ane twelvemonth, Thea chop-chop informed me that ALL she had to read was the 20 minutes that it said, afterward that, she was done.  It didn't affair how much I told her that it was not just twenty minutes that she needed to read considering the piece of newspaper told her so.  And the paper trumped my insistence to simply read.

We have been lucky in that every fourth dimension a reading log has been sent home for our kids to do, 3 times and counting so far, we have had incredible teachers who have been fine with united states of america not doing them.  We explain that we read every nighttime, that the log changes our advisedly protected reading habits, and ask whether they volition simply trust usa when we say that our child reads.  But this is not e'er the instance, sometimes teachers insist that they are done, that they utilise them for grading purposes, that they are not an option.  They attach rewards, punishments, special treatment to those who either practise or don't do the logs.  Equally if parents signing a piece of paper tells united states annihilation about a child's reading habits.  Because I am here to share a secret; every bit a parent, I prevarication on reading logs.  I don't e'er know which specific books my child just spent the last xxx minutes devouring.  Sometimes I do, but not always.  I can't tell yous the exact minutes of reading because we don't go along rail.  Sometimes nosotros simply forget to sign because life is busy.  It reminds me of what Donalyn Miller says that the but matter a reading log proves is which parents have a pen on Friday morning.

I write this post non to shun, non to rage, and not to put down. I write this mail service non to say what is right or incorrect, but instead to add a little tiny slice to the ongoing discussion of where reading logs may or may not fit into our classrooms.  Of the damage and the usefulness of reading logs.  This is not a mail service with absolutes, or at to the lowest degree, I don't think it will be.  Instead, information technology is a mail service meant for discussion.

How I Know My Students Are Reading

One of the biggest reasons I know teachers utilise reading logs is the accountability piece, if students fill out a reading log so I tin come across their exterior reading lives, and while that is sometimes truthful (remember, parents lie) there are amend ways to practise information technology that don't involve the traveling of paper back and forth.  How do I know my students are reading if I don't bank check their reading log?  How do I know that at some indicate their eyes meet a text?  At that place are many ways actually.

• They sign in with their page number. On our whiteboard hangs a elementary sheet that allows kids to put down the page they are currently on in whichever book they are reading.  At the end of a week, I do an boilerplate tally for each kid.  They take individual reading goals (prepare past them) that they keep runway of in their notebooks and they also enter in their folio numbers in a reading data sheet.  This allows kids to run into their ain patterns of reading, besides as to reverberate on their growth.  I can speedily glance and see who is reading or non.
• I watch their reaction.  Kids who read want independent reading time.  Kids who are in a swell part of a book want fourth dimension to find out what will happen adjacent.  Kids who slowly go settled into their book, who distract others on the way; those are the kids I need to bank check in with and help.
• I keep an eye on their to-be-read listing.  Every bit I confer with kids, I glance at their to-be-read list, it should be messy, with titles added and sometimes crossed out.  I know which books have been book-talked and so I can run across when kids are using information technology.
• I kept an eye on their volume bins.  A whole bookshelf in my room used to be the proof that my students read.  Periodically I would look through their bins, noting which books a kid has and whether those books had changed.  If they hadn't, I checked in with that kid.
• We recommend.Another favorite in our room is the speed book dating.  We quickly rattle off a book nosotros dearest and why it should be read while the listener has their "I tin can't look to read " list in their paw.
• We show off our reading.  I have my reading door outside of the room and then that my students always know what I am reading and my students can recommend books to their peers on a book tree.  This makes our reading is visible.
• We talk over.Reading should not be a alone effort so we make time to discuss our books and why they are the best or the worst book ever.
• I kid watch.  If I want to know whether kids are reading, I watch them.  Sometimes instead of conferring, I just sit back and pay attention.  This is one of our nifty superpowers as teachers, don't forget that.
• Nosotros reverberate.  I ofttimes enquire students to tie in today's teaching point with whatever they are reading correct now.  Whether information technology is on a notecard or through conversation, students take a moment to think and apply and once again lets me see what they are reading.
• We practise monthly reading reflections.  This year I actually wanted to have a open up dialogue with the students in regard to their reading life and although I do constant 1 on one or pocket-sized group instruction, I wanted something more formal that I could file abroad and look at when needed.  My students know they are not judged on what they write just rather that I use it as a way to start a conversation with them.  I always capeesh their honesty and my actions bear witness that.  The surveys are quick and to the betoken.
• We take smashing books.  If you desire kids to read, take great books.  I do not know how much coin I spend a year on books, I know information technology is a lot, simply every time I am able to volume talk a book and see the reaction in my kids, it is worth it.  Couple that with an incredible librarian and my students are pretty lucky in the book section.
• I lose a lot of books.  Considering I encourage my students to take our books home to read, I inevitably lose a lot of books.  While it is hard to recall of it from a fiscal standpoint, I likewise know that hose books are existence read by someone.  Then yes, information technology is difficult to constantly replace books (and expensive) just information technology is something that goes along with being a reading classroom.

If You lot Have to Employ Reading Logs

I have written earlier on my complicated relationship with reading logs; from being a teacher who demanded all students fill them out, to a teacher who threw them out, to a teacher who was asked to use them as part of their pedagogy, to a teacher whose students asked them to finish, to a parent who has signed them.  Simply I accept never written about how to apply them ameliorate.  Because I don't like reading logs, at that place I said it, just at the same time, there are and then many teachers that exercise, great teachers that care about children's dear of reading, and in that location are fifty-fifty teachers that accept to use them.  And I don't experience that shaming others will farther the conversations.

My biggest issue with reading logs comes from the inherent lack of trust that they communicate; we do not trust you to read every night, nosotros exercise not trust you to read long enough, nor practice we trust you to abound as a reader, so fill out this paper instead.  And while I could write a whole post on that, I think Jessica Lifshitz did a much better job on it than I ever will.

And even so, I too run into the value in getting a window into the reading lives of a student.  I encounter the value of having students understand their own reading habits so they can figure out how to grow.  To mine their own data and then to speak in order for them to discover new patterns and new goals.  And so what can we practice, if we have to use reading logs (or we want to) to brand them ameliorate for students?

Ask the students. Inquire the students their feelings on reading logs and consider their feedback carefully.  If most of your students recall this tool will assistance them become stronger readers then work one out with them.  For those that are opposed to them, figure something else out.  If nosotros truly want students to fully cover the opportunities that nosotros say tin be plant inside a reading log and so we demand to make sure they have buy in also.  Create reading logs that are meaningful to the students, which means that they will probably await different from year to year, based on the students we teach.

Ask the parents.I will flat out tell you that I volition sign whatever I have to from schoolhouse.  I will not count the minutes, I hate writing down titles because nosotros read a lot, and I do not meet much value in her logging her reading every night.  If yous want proof, enquire me in an email or in conversations, but do not make me sign a piece of paper.  If some parents like reading logs then by all ways piece of work out a organization with them, merely exempt the other parents since more than likely they will probably not be invested anyway.

Differentiate. For the kids that do want a reading log, find out what it is they would like to gain from it.  I have a few students that love coming in every Mon and writing downward the titles of the books they read or abandoned over the weekend (that is all they keep track of plus a rating).  For those kids their tape keeping is a fashion for them to recollect what they have read and whether they liked information technology or not.  They do non go on track of minutes or anything like that, we discuss that in our written reading reflections that we practice once in a while or confront to face.  So observe out what it is that the students like about logging their reading, if information technology is the reward that is attached to it then that should exist a huge warning sign.

Go on it in class.When I had to do a reading log in my former district, we kept it in form.  Students were asked to write down the title and for how long they were focused on the book right after independent reading.  That manner, organization and parent follow up were removed from the equation and all kids (and me) were post-obit the district expectation.

Stop rewarding. If reading logs really are meant every bit a fashion to investigate ones' own reading habits then cease tying in rewards with them.  The reward is in the reading, not the ticket, not the pizza, not the trinket.  Ever.

Cease punishing.  When we punish kids who do not plow in their reading logs, we forget our bigger purpose; to establish lifelong readers, instead investigate.  Why was information technology not turned in?  What happened?  And for the sake of everything expert; practise non forcefulness a child to then miss recess to make upwards for the lost fourth dimension in reading.  You do non desire to equate reading with penalisation, ever.

Make it an experiment.  If you like using reading logs to find out pupil habits, so do information technology as a 2-calendar week experiment with all students.  Have them for 2 weeks go along runway of when, where, what, and how much they read then have daily or weekly conversations and reflections on what they discover.  Ready tangible goals from that.  Do it periodically throughout the year if yous really desire this to exist seen equally a learning opportunity, that style students can see a value in tracking their reading life this way.  If yous have them practise information technology all year, well-nigh students lose interest and will not see information technology as an opportunity to grow just just as one more thing to exercise.

Leave fourth dimension for reflection.Rather than log, nosotros reflect.  My students set monthly reading goals and then at the finish of the month they reverberate on how they did through a survey.  The students and I volition meet and discuss formally and informally and this is what I use for my vantage point into their reading life.  I ask them to tell me what they are working on and they do.

Don't forget the purpose of reading logs. If the purpose is to help students grow as readers then make sure that the very act of filling out a reading log, with or without parent signature, is not damaging that purpose.  Information technology is often when nosotros set up upwards more than processes for students in order to help them read meliorate that we lose them every bit readers.  When kids spend more time doing things fastened to reading, rather than the act of reading we accept a problem.

In the terminate, in our pursuit to establish classrooms filled with passionate readers, we must make sure that the things we practice, even little parts of our day like reading logs, do not practise more damage than good.  That we fit our processes effectually our students, rather than the other way effectually.  That we continue to debate, question and consider as we decide what to invest our time in.  And that we always, and I hateful always, inquire the students what they think.  Even the fiddling ones, they accept a voice that matters likewise.

For all my ramblings on reading logs, hither is where to get-go.

If you like what y'all read here, consider reading my newest book, Passionate Readers – The Art of Reaching and Engaging Every Child.  This book focuses on the five keys we can implement into any reading customs to strengthen student reading experiences, even within the 45 infinitesimal English block.  If y'all are looking for solutions and ideas for how to re-engage all of your students consider reading my very first book  Passionate Learners – How to Engage and Empower Your Students.      Also, if you are wondering where I will exist in the coming year or would similar to have me speak, please see this page.

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Source: https://pernillesripp.com/2018/11/03/lets-talk-about-reading-logs-again/

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