On 8/11/09 9:42 PM, "McGivern, Liz" <[email protected]> wrote:
I agree with the posters above -- and while I'm certainly no genius, I'll send my logs to anyone who is interested. Liz, I¹m interested in taking a look at your logs. I have over 750 independent reading books in my classroom -- from "edgy" to classic. We read for two 45-minute periods per week -- if I can schedule it, I will make them back-to-back so it's one "block" of 90 minutes once a week.. I have an impressive collection of yard sale pillows, bean bags, and carpet squares for the kids to curl up in as long as they are behaving. It can be easy for kids to try and hide their iPod earbuds during reading time if you don't know what to look for! Wow! Your room sounds very similar to mine. I have 10+ bookcases of independent reading books in my classroom and have what sounds like a carbon copy of your collection of seating choices as well. What I don¹t have is two 45-minute periods per week for SSR. I try to have it at least once a week, but sometimes I just can¹t do it. In the past I¹ve had Independent Reading as homework. This is the reading that I want kids to do outside of class. Like I mentioned yesterday, I basically want my kids to BE readers, read the books they want for enjoyment and not have to DO anything with it. I¹m trying to get to the kind of reading that I do: simply read a book and when I¹m done, pick another one a read it, etc. Of course, I¹m constantly talking about my reads to others and often pass my books on to them in the hopes that they enjoy them as much as I did. Very informal. Anyway, I¹m just looking for a way that I can have kids keep a very simple log of what they are reading, how many pages they are reading, and the time spent reading in order to add just a touch of accountability. I've tried reading journals, and they just don't work for me. It seems too contrived and I can't correct them fast enough for them to be effective. So I keep track of how many pages each student reads per session. Each student has an individual goal (I keep the data on an Excel spreadsheet so it's easy to track) and gets a grade per session. If you meet or exceed your goal, you get 100. If you don't, you get a percentage. The goals are adjusted by me and computed by my spreadsheet, so it's easy to grade. It has to be easy for it to work with me! For SSR, which is done in my room under my eagle eye, I just keep track of what each student is reading and how much they read during the period. They way they get their points is to have a book (5) and just read (5). They fill out an SSR log with the date, title, author, and start and end page. I collect the logs periodically to look them over and then at the end of the trimester. When they abandon a book, they fill out a sheet that tells me why. When they finish a book, they can either fill out a sheet giving me info about the book OR do a booktalk for the class. Why do you ask them to explain why they abandon a book? Do you do anything with the information they provide you? What information do you ask them to give you on a finished book? How do you schedule your booktalks? Are they formal or informal? This is the 6th year I've done it this way -- I tweak it a little every year, but it seems to work best for the kids this way. They read voraciously -- I expect them to finish 20 books per year and every one of them always does. Do you use some kind of contract for students to sign to finish 20 books in the year? We also read 4-5 additional novels as a class throughout the year, and use those novels for "response and curriculum" topics. My class and I usually aim for 3 class novels for the year and this is where I bring in the reading strategies and writing (your response and curriculum?). Hope I haven't bored anyone! Like I said, I'm no genius -- just developed this through lots of trial & error. It works for me, but I'm not saying it's the perfect solution!! Another great book is "The Book Whisperer" I read it last summer and felt like I was reading about my own classroom! :) I¹ll have to get a copy of this and read it. Ms. Liz McGivern 8th grade Language Arts Hudson Memorial School Sherri Neofotist 7th grade Language Arts West Middle School _______________________________________________ The Literacy Workshop ListServ http://www.literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/lit_literacyworkshop.org. Search the LIT archives at http://snipurl.com/LITArchive
