I would like to hold my 5th graders accountable for their reading at night. I have always had a reading log for my 3rd graders but now that I am a fifth grade teacher, I am looking for ideas to include or samples. Does anyone have anything?
When I student taught, the teacher gave the students a blank calendar for the corresponding month. (It was copied back to back with the same month on the paper twice) One side was for math facts, and the other was for reading. The idea was for the students to keep track of their minutes and have their parents initial it on Friday and the students would bring it in weekly. This was great in theory but the students had a hard time remembering it weekly and I hate to say, so did I. It seemed with everything else going on, this log to make sure was initialed was not #1 priority. What was to say that the kid didnt just fill it out quickly too, ya know? ...I'm interested in others ideas though so that I can get something figured out for my class as well.
This is something I have struggled with as well. I send home a calendar but many don't come back and it becomes more of pain for me to track them down. I've thought about dropping it all together as the students who are going to read will do it without a calendar and those who don't are the ones who don't turn in the calendar. I do hand out a version of this information with my parent packet at the beginning of the year and go over it with my students. I'm not sure what my plan is....here's the link. http://web.me.com/donna.glynn/Kinderglynn/Forms_for_Parents_files/Why%20Should%20Children%20Read%2020%20Minutes%20a%20Night%3F.pdf
I have my students write a response to what they have read at home. They tell me what they've read, write a summary, and answer a response topic. I started this last year, and although it is not a perfect solution, I like it better than just keeping track of the minutes because they actually have to write about what they've read, and I can tell (usually) if they have really done their reading. I had the students turn them in weekly last year, but I am considering changing that to every two weeks this year. The weekly responses were a lot to grade, and students got burnt out doing them. Students would read four nights a week for homework and write a response on the fifth. (The students could choose which nights they did this--reading responses were due on Mondays.)
I did something similar to Mr. D. We used a reading response log, usually weekly, in our reading workshop. Students were to read 20 minutes a night, plus had about 20 minutes or so three days in reading class. If we were reading a whole class novel, I might have them not do a response at all or have the response be partly about the whole class book and partly about their independent reading book. Sometimes I just took the week off because either they or I needed a break. Also, I never assigned a response when we had a three day weekend or longer break.
I quit monitoring how many minutes they were reading at home, because the parents lie - thus teaching the children to lie. Instead I have a lot of SSR in my classroom during the day. They read at least 20 minutes a day; those who are fast finishers read even more. That is always the go to activity.
I, too, have abandoned the reading log due to parent apathy/lying. We are doing a lot more reading in class (no centers during Guided Reading groups & conferences...) just READING. I've found that more reading in class triggers more reading out of class. Students do have accountability in class: they have to write one letter to me a week & I collect their journals & respond to them twice a month (on staggered days, so I basically have 2 journals to read each night & 6 on the weekends). I'm also adopting the "40 Book Challenge" suggested by Donalyn Miller in _The Book Whisperer_. I had large postcards created at VistaPrint with a table/grid of various genres, etc. They'll get their chart stamped for each book that they finish. To "prove" that they finish books, I ask them to blog. I've set up at class blog at kidsblog.org. There is also class money awarded for each COMPLETE (at least 3 paragraphs) blog review & also for each COMPLETE (at least 3 sentences) comments to classmates about their reviews. We have a lot of parents deployed overseas at our school, and a lot of involved grandparents as well. They're blogging with us! I just have to assign them a user name & password too! I do have monthly reading calendars from a while back that I'd be happy to send you if you'd like to see them. Each calendar has a space for kids to record their reading with space for a parent's initials & on the back are 3 choices of comprehension activities for each week. At the end of the month, they turned in their calendar/log and the 4 activities (one/week). Just PM me your email address if you'd like them. If you use them, you'll have to adjust the dates since they were made for my school calendar. Chele
I agree. I tried reading logs one year, and I found that children hardly read, or parents lied too. I just try to ensure that my students use all 45 minutes of their independent reading time in class, and strongly encourage them to read at home.
I tried reading logs and the parents would often sign them whether they read or not. In 5th grade there must be better accountability. Instead I decided to increase the number of literature books they read and hold them more accountable. I assign pages from a literature book every night to read. I have 5 question Multiple Choice quizzes twice a week on these, in addition to activities and vocabulary that we do with the book. I also agree with the previous posts on 20 minutes of SSR. I do that and find it is helpful.
Our entire school expects students to read 20 minutes a night, 5 times a week. They have to write one or two sentences each night about what they have read. For the most part students do well with it. It is actually a part of their reading grade. I just check them each day quickly using a special heart punch to show I have checked it. They also earn chips for their team for each reading response and double chips if their whole team has read and responded. I teach 5th graders so this is all highly motivating for them. They love the celebration points that their team keeps track of.
