Standard reading logs for elementary school are often disliked by parents. The standard log requires students to document by date that they have read a certain number of minutes at home each night. Then the log has to be initialed by the parents. Some parents have complained that this turns the fun of reading into a chore.
In order to combat this theory, teachers have created and implemented reading logs designed to take the chore out of reading while still requiring accountability by the student. The logs give the teachers the information they need to encourage students to read.
Below are examples of how some schools and individual teachers develop and administer meaningful reading logs for elementary school students.
Center Grove Community School Corporation in Indiana has more than 100 creative suggestions for elementary reading response logs. The teachers emphasize that reading logs do not have to be on notebook paper. The logs can be created and presented in a variety of ways such as using Post-it-notes or even video presentations.
One elementary school teacher dispenses with the “keeping track” of pages read and time spent reading. Instead, she passes out new logs every week. She puts a new piece of clip art or cartoon or interesting quote or fact on the page. Finally, she gives the students a choice of questions to answer about the book they are reading. Here are examples of writing suggestions she offers to students:
An eighth grade teacher has an idea for reading logs that can be adapted to students of all levels. She allows her students to choose a reading log from a list of 12 different reading logs that she gives them. Here are some examples of writing suggestions she offers to students:
More creative log suggestions from this teacher and examples of how her students have used them can be found here.
A fourth grade teacher has the students keep a reading log where they write down the name of the book they are reading, then follow several specific steps and rules.
Categorized as: Tips for Teachers and Classroom Resources
Tagged as: Early Childhood and Elementary (Grades: PreK-5), Language Arts