Reading logs are the definition of a fun suck.
They are one of the few things I truly hate about reading. I used them one year because all the other teachers were using them. I witnessed first hand their destructive power.
I saw reading become a chore to be finished instead of an escape to be taken. I saw honest students turn into liars by forging their parent’s signature. I saw voracious readers get in trouble for not filling out their log. I saw the voyage of reading become reduced to swabbing the deck all in the name of helping students be responsible.
I used them once. I’ll never go back.
Now I talk to my students every week about the importance of reading. I want them to read outside of class everyday for the rest of their lives. Reading is a great way to help us be the best people we can be. Reading is for life. It helps us in ways that don’t fit neatly into a little log.
“But how will you know if we’re reading at home?” an eager student asked me near the beginning of this year. I tried to explain to the student that, on the day-to-day, I won’t know.
“So we don’t have to do it, then?” Hmmm. This student wasn’t getting it yet. He was standing at the gates of Readicide, but I’m thankful he hadn’t walked through yet.
“I’ll know you’re not reading by your conversations,” I told him. The student’s squinty, confused eyes told me he needed a bit more. “We’re going to talk about books a lot this year. And write about them quite a bit as well. What do you think will happen if you’re not responsible with your reading?”
The student thought for a second. “I guess I won’t have much to say.”
“Exactly.”
I make sure my students know that I can’t make them read at home either. I want them to feel the weight of that responsibility on their shoulders. I want them to own it. That way when they do read on their own, they know it was their choice. It wasn’t something Mr. Stortz made them do.
Responsible readers are made by opportunities to be responsible, not by hackneyed accountability gimmicks. Ditch the reading logs. Your readers will appreciate it.
Are you assigning specific books for reading outside of school? Are the discussions going to be about individual books or a whole class discussion about the book that is being read collectively. If you allow kids to pick their own, will you allow them to read manga, comics, and graphic novels. Also, will you require fiction/non-fiction reading?
ReplyDeleteC'mon, don't leave me hanging :)
William Chamberlain- Easy, now. Easy. :D
ReplyDeleteAssigning Specific Books
The students do this for themselves as part of literature circles. They pick the book they want to read, and they set the timeframe for meetings. I give the guideline of about a month per book.
Discussions
I encourage my students to give informal one-minute book talks to the class about books they are reading. They also discuss their literature circle books during their group meeting. I have them partner up every so often to share a recently read book as well.
Picking Books
I give my classes the responsibility for selecting their own reading material. Obviously some need more guidance than others. We talk about many ways to select their own materials.
Here are my suggestions for them:
* a novel
* a non-fiction
* a "fun" book
The "fun" books (I hate that name, but haven't come up with anything else) are the mangas, comics, graphic novels, poetry, Guinness Records, audio books, magazines, etc.
I don't hard and fast require anything. Those are the guidelines. The students help each other find titles, and I help as much as the students want it. I think the fewer restrictions the better.
I'll regularly have boys check out four non-fiction titles on World War II. I don't fuss much. I look at bigger overall patterers. We also have regular discussions on being well-rounded readers.
Regarding the "fun" books term, I'm going to be trying something new this year as far as reading categories and thought I'd share...
Delete-"Micro Reads" will be considered anything you could pick up and read for less than five minutes and still get into. This could include comics, magazines, joke books, brochures, etc.
-"Short Reads" will be anything you could get into in ten minutes or less. This will include magazines, newspapers, picture books, almanac/record books, poetry, interesting books below a student's level that they still want to read, etc.
-"Extended Reads" will be those things that take more than ten minutes to get into and will include students' assigned guided reading book or interesting books at their "just-right" level.
Students will be expected to have at least one piece of reading material from all three categories in their book boxes so they always have something engaging to read. With the exception of their assigned guided reading book, the rest will be selected by them and may fall into the novel, non-fiction, or "fun" categories you mentioned. I'm trying to find ways to make reading a more authentic experience for 5th graders. In my own life, I may not read a novel every day, but I certainly do read every day, and I have reading materials from all three of the above categories sitting on my coffee table right now.
Great stuff, I find that my lowest readers tend to love to read nonfiction. There are lots of theories I have heard about that. Do you find the same thing? If so, what is your theory?
ReplyDeleteThe best one I have heard is that nonfiction is tangible, the kids that don't read well can't really visualize the stories so they replace having to visualize with actual things.
I definitely see that in my lower readers. That theory makes good sense too. Non-fiction tends to have way more pictures, and photographs at that. It seems like it would free up some mental power to not have to make so many abstractions.
ReplyDeleteAnother thought that goes with lower readers and non-fiction is the content. There are not many mature novels for a student in 4th grade who is reading on a 2nd grade level. Students don't want to carry around a Junie B. Jones when their friends all have a Percy Jackson. Non-fiction is more equal footing.
First off - I do agree with everything you have written to varying degrees. I have seen everything you have written about.
ReplyDeleteA few questions:
Is it possible that requiring students to read and document their reading through reading logs (or anything for that matter) could potentially lead to a love of reading at sometime in a student's future? Either through serendipitous discovery and/or skill acquired through practice/habit?
Kelly Gallegher has frequently stated that he hated reading poetry, but was forced to in school and he eventually saw the beauty of poetry and now thoroughly enjoys reading it.
I am currently wrestling with this concept (requirement vs exploratory) in my own practice. I have vascilated from both extremes thoughout my fourteen year career, both with success and failures. I am struggling to find the balance.
I guess I am also wrestling with the seemingly inherent presupposition many teachers have that our students are so fragile that requiring students to do something will ruin their life (to be clear, I am not putting you in that camp...Joe Bower is the head of that camp in my eyes!)...And on the other hand, those teachers who argue that our students are resilliant and strong and will succeed despite what we make them do in our classes.
I have been reading Charles Duhigg's "The Power of Habit" and it has really caused me to think. I really like the notion of having positive habits in the classroom that allows our students to be creative in various aspects of their academics and lives.
To put another way: should a student memorize his scales or rudiments while learning the guitar or drums. There are many examples of players who have, Steve Vai and Mike Mangini. And there are those who have not, Alex LIfeson and Mike Portnoy (I think!).
To make it personal, I am very comfortable with and like the pictures I post on Instagram and Flickr not knowing info about aperture and other minutiae of photography. I have had some success with my pics. However, I wonder to what extent things would be different if I were forced to learn all the minutiae of photography?
I wonder if requiring students to read and keep track of their reading could at some point in their future equip them for something greater.
I use reading logs but not in a onerous way I hope. I ask my children to write down the title and author of each book they read. When they finish it, I ask them to write a brief comment about it. Then it can be used as a discussion document when I hear them read individually. It can also be used to spark ideas when they can't find anything else to read "look back at find an author you enjoyed". Some of them have even swapped their reading logs to get ideas from each other.
ReplyDeleteAR is mandatory in my school. My former principal gave up trying to force me to force my kids to read for points. I don't care if it's an AR book,as long as they're reading! A colleague,for the past 2 years, in her eagerness to win the top AR prize for her class, makes students who are not in an AR club stay in and "read" during Recess.How much reading do you think was done? How many of those kids now detest reading?
ReplyDeleteGreat questions & thoughts, Stephen! Thanks so much for sharing them. It pushed my thinking and got some brain juices flowing.
ReplyDelete“Is it possible that requiring students to read and document their reading through reading logs (or anything for that matter) could potentially lead to a love of reading at sometime in a student’s future?”
Sure. It sounds like you’re proof of that concept. Students are exposed to lots of things that way. I just highly regard autonomy and self-selection in reading. That said, part of reading workshop includes elements of forcing exposure to different genres for exactly your reason.
“I guess I am also wrestling with the seemingly inherent presupposition many teachers have that our students are so fragile that requiring students to do something will ruin their life”
I hear you. I’ve encountered that as well. I’m all for having students work diligently. That goes for reading as well. There are many other options for this other than reading logs. Kathryn Oleszkowicz @KOleszkowicz suggested having students write or post a question they have about their reading, or having students do 2 minute book talks with partners each week.
“I really like the notion of having positive habits in the classroom… To put another way: should a student memorize his scales or rudiments while learning the guitar or drums.”
Positive habits rock! That’s why I try to have 20+ minutes of independent reading time in class everyday. It builds that reading habit.
I’m not sure if the analogy with music scales holds up to self-selected independent reading in my mind. The scales and rudiments would be more analogous to skills like inferencing, summarizing, and the like. Definitely important. But that’s what reading workshop is for.
The kind of reading I’m talking about would be more like a musician writing songs. The musician would use those scales and rudiments to support the song writing process, much as students use those reading skills during their independent reading.
“I wonder if requiring students to read and keep track of their reading could at some point in their future equip them for something greater.”
I definitely think encouraging, equiping, expecting, and even requiring students to read can open up their future for greater things. I don’t see how a required log would necessarily help that much.
One of the best methods of encouraging students to pursue reading is to read aloud to them. Of course the choice material has to be of interest to the audience and, above all, the reader has to be engaging and entertaining. Reading to kids during lunch facilitates a peaceful class of focused munching kids.
ReplyDeleteGood point, Justin. Accountability gimmicks are just that -- gimmicks. Thank God my own two girls love to read for the sake of reading. When my own daughter was a student in my sixth grade class, I tried the reading log thing, then realized how lame it was when I noticed she stopped filling it out. I eventually shut the program down for the exact same reasons you did. No one can coerce another person into having a passion for something.
ReplyDeleteI always wonder why reading is something that SO many teachers assign as something to be done alone at home as homework. I feel strongly that doing so sends a message that says reading isn't important enough to use class time on. Giving students 15 minutes to read EVERY DAY NO MATTER WHAT sends a much better message and then students can share what they liked or didn't like or didn't understand or had questions about right then and there with their classmates and with their teacher. Don't assign reading as homework - it's too important and the kids who do it as homework are the kids who already have the reading habit anyway!
ReplyDeleteGood post. I added it to my master list of anti-reading-log material here:
ReplyDeletehttp://kidfriendlyschools.blogspot.com/2010/08/join-chorus-against-reading-logs.html