Read and Respond, we've almost got it!

I love seeing the progression that my students make from writing summaries, to actually responding to what they read. The progression is pretty predictable. The first few weeks many students are typically stuck in summary mode. Then as I score them, share quality entries, and offer them suggestions, they move to stage two, trying out too many prompts. This example is a student in said stage:

She has several different prompts mashed into one entry. She has:
I hope . . .
I think . . .
It surprised me when . . .
I think . . . (again)
I hope . . . (again)

All are excellent thoughts to jot down, but she needs to stick to one and use the rest of the entry to explain why she thought something. The note I wrote at the bottom didn't make it into the photo, but it went something like, "These are all great thoughts, but I would like you to stick to just one prompt, and then explain why you think or feel that way."

Nearly all of my students showed significant improvement in their responses compared to last week. They are almost there and it is exciting to see them to progress from re-tellers to deep thinkers!

I've sold quite a few of my Read and Respond kits on TpT. I'd love to hear how it is working in other classrooms!