Teaching, modeling, and scoring Read and Respond

I've already mentioned how essential I feel Read and Respond is to promoting daily reading and improving comprehension. It is important to note that using Read and Respond is not an overnight and instant success, it takes a bit of work at the beginning. I introduce R&R the first week of school and we practice several times in class; after I read aloud to them in class we write an entry together. Then they start to try it out on their own for homework. I periodically have them score themselves using the rubric they attached, score each other, and share out loud.

All of this is never enough as students are usually trained to write summaries, and they are pretty good at that already. I have to guide them to move away from the summarizing and start to respond to what they read by including their thoughts and feelings. I try to read and score 1-2 of their entries weekly or bi-weekly. I ask them to only put one response on a page that way I have room to score them and leave feedback. Generally the first few weeks I am putting the same comment that goes something like, "This is a good summary, but I want you to respond to what you read. Try using the prompts at the front of your notebook." After a bit of practice they get it.

Here are a couple of the first ones I have scored this year and you can get an idea of the range (although I have very few that score a 3 or 4 the first couple of weeks).