Reading Log

Time for another post, I tend to do most of my work at night after my baby is asleep... I can really appreciate the amount of time, love, and energy that all of you parents put into raising your gifted children!

I have noticed a pattern that most of my students love to read but many resist writing.  It makes me sad to see students who think writing is "hard" because it's such an essential means of expression.  I want them to build the habit of writing at least one good sentence outside of school daily reflecting on a book of their choice.  This helps them to practice mechanics and printing but more importantly process their independent reading using the skills that we practice in class.  Often they don't even realize that they are using these skills already as part of what good readers naturally do.  I like to help them recognize this.  Here are some nice examples from our first batch of reading logs.

At this point in the year I want my students to focus more on the content of their writing so I won't be correcting their spelling or punctuation YET.  Don't worry, that will come later.  For now I want the reading log to be something that they are comfortable with.  It shouldn't be taking more than 5-10 minutes at most.  If it becomes a battle at home, please let me know so I can help your child to manage this.  If your child "doesn't know what to write" start by having them tell you about the book out loud.  Let them talk to you about what they liked, what was funny, what they learned (if it was a nonfiction book), or what the story was about.  Talking about the book will help them to organize their thoughts before they begin to write.

The two biggest problems that I see on reading log assignments are either simple sentences ("I like this book" "It was cool" "You should read this book") or students who always use the same type of  sentence ("I like this book because it is funny" "I like this book because I like to read about insects" "I like this book because...").  If your child begins to do that, try to stop the pattern of lazy writing.  For my "simple sentence writers" I require them to use the word "because" and highlight it.  This means they will have to provide some sort of evidence.  For repetitive writers, I require them to start their sentences differently each day.

If your child wants to write more than the lines allow, they can always write on a separate sheet of paper and staple it to the reading log.  I will return reading log assignments in Friday Folders although it sometimes takes me more than a week to grade them.  I try to be thoughtful with my feedback so it takes me a little longer to grade these than math pages.

I will share more about reading log assignments at Back to School Night.  I hope this helped to clarify my expectations.