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Adults out there, I need your help!
I’ve begun to accumulate a group of teacher-blogger colleagues and one of the issues that’s come up recently is the issue of student reading logs at home. I guess my question is this: Should I require them? Or should I think of some other method to help students set goals and make progress in their reading?
There’s no doubt that reading is important! You might have seen the data tables about how all those minutes add up to some pretty serious differences between those who read regularly, and those who don’t. If you haven’t see one of the table that correlates reading achievement to amount of time read, here it is:
That’s a lot of difference in the total number of words readers encounter over the course of just a year, much less a lifetime. The fact is that learners get most of their content knowledge and vocabulary through reading after 4th grade. Ouch. This table shows just how much the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer.
Over the years, I’ve moved away from sending home reading logs. Families have reported that they lose them, or forget to record reading and have to make up the reading log. It’s a real source of stress for both the reader and the family, which isn’t really the intent at all! My teacher friends in the diaspora note similar problems with reading logs. Yet a lot of teachers do them…
However, it does seem important to highlight the importance of reading, and to help students set some goals for their own reading — either quantity goals, or goals to explore different genre. Is a reading log the only way to do that?
So, parents, what do you think about reading logs? Do you miss them this year so far? How can we work together to help your child set some reading goals for this year? Suggestions?
I would agree there has to be better way to motivate students to discover the benefits of reading than just logging minutes! I have found students have good ideas so it may be a good brainstorming session for them, plus they are vested in the idea because it was from them.
The big question to figure out what motivates students to want to read? Is it discovering new, funny and interesting stories, learning new words or a great way to pass the time.
Maybe it is a classroom project, with parental support, that students take turns each week giving a report on a new book or new words discovered. They can share in any fashion – video, pictures, story, etc…. They never know when it will be their week so hopefully they are all reading.
I will be interested in other ideas other than logs!
Like Holly, I have mixed feelings about logs and agree that we need to keep our eyes on the ultimate goal: helping young people see the benefits of reading.
However, as I think about it, I could get behind the idea of using a reading log if the student had a goal of reading x minutes/ hours each week. The data above suggests that there is a correlation between minutes reading and percentile so encouraging them to read more and asking them to set weekly goals for minutes reading certainly can’t hurt, right? And logging those minutes allows them to see daily progress toward the weekly goal (short term goals).
If, however, the goal is for students to “discover the benefits of reading” as Holly stated than I don’t think tracking minutes is a useful strategy. I agree with Holly that there are better ways to achieve this and I sense that this happens regularly in the classroom as students discuss what they are reading individually and collectively. I bet they even talk about that question: why should we read?
My sense is that both of these are goals- sticking with a regular reading routine and discovering the benefits of reading. If kids are reading the “right” things (those things that interest and excite them) than the former should help achieve the latter, right?
It would be interesting for students to track their minutes reading for a couple weeks (without any instruction to read X minutes per night)….see where they are at and then set their own goals for the next couple weeks. This would also give the “log” a short term trial (no one turns it in at the end of two weeks might tell you how motivated parents/ kids are to keep the log 🙂 It would also be interesting for them to think about their time collectively—how many minutes did we read as a class this week? This month?
I fully agree with Holly that what we ultimately want is for them to discover the benefits of reading—tallying minutes isn’t the point!. But, as with any new activity (sport, musical instrument etc.), we don’t always see those benefits right away so maybe intermediary goals (time practicing) can be used to keep them focused, on task and sticking with it on a regular basis.
There is my 2 cents (or maybe 4 cents…that ended up longer than I intended it to be!)
Wow! What wonderful, thoughtful ideas. It’s interesting how this discussion has mirrored the discussion in my network of teachers. Some are against the logs, some are ambivalent, some are for the logs. I was especially struck by those whose ideas ran counter to my thoughts (usually the ones who wanted the logs); some teachers thought that some kids might want a visual, almost graph-like, sense of growth, something minutes or books provides. (They likened it to training for a running race by increasing miles and lowering times, or practicing an instrument as Britt noted.)
One idea is to do sort of a hybrid process. There’s no reason that one-size has to fit all. Ultimately, the usefulness of such a process comes from within anyway, not from me. So…perhaps we can offer the graph, or a log as an option for those who want it. As the year goes along, perhaps we could also create a book review page, or wiki, that the kids could contribute video, written, or spoken reviews? These might encourage others to read as well, and be great presentation thinking and practice. I’m working on creating a video book trailer so I can teach kids how to make them, too. Maybe that?
I think I’ll ask the kids for some thoughts, to see what might work.
Thanks, Holly and Britt, for being willing to think about this with me.
When I look at Teagen’s planner it says to read for 30 minutes. We have just made reading part of our nightly routine. Sometimes he reminds me lol. For us it doesn’t matter either way. Honestly saving the paper would be good all around!
Thanks so much for taking the time to comment!
I think that’s funny that he’s reminding you about the reading. And what you said about saving paper…I’m right there with you. I went away from at home reading logs several years ago when I realized that I was causing more stress with parents, than I was helping young readers grow.
I think we’ll be able to figure something else out.
I’ve started an at school reading log as a way for us to notice patterns in what we read: Do we abandon a lot of books? Explore a lot? A little? Self knowledge is always a good thing!