Putting Together a Read and Respond Notebok

I have been using a form of Read and Respond since I started teaching. Every year it evolves and improves. It's still not perfect, but I'm happy with its evolution. Read and Respond is a great way to encourage and hold students accountable for daily reading. I want my 5th graders to spend the bulk
of their homework time engrossed in books, so the response part I try to make as quick and painless as possible, while still being meaningful. This summer I updated the entire thing just in time for a new school year! I thought I'd put together a little video showing how easy it is to set up.

If you've already purchased my Read and Respond product I've included the updated version for download. The older version is still available if you prefer that one. 

I'd love to giveaway my Read and Respond to three people! Enter the Rafflecopter through Monday, July 13. 

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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!

What genre are you reading?

When I taught 6th grade I felt that the students knew genre pretty well, but this year my 5th graders seem to struggle with it in their Read and Respond (I haven't "taught" genre yet). I set up this genre bulletin board in our classroom library area.

Last year I started using those small shelves from Ikea to display books in my classroom. I don't remember how much they were but they are super easy to install and are very sturdy. Since we study ancient civilizations in 6th grade, I would display books to go along with whatever we were studying: ancient Greece, Rome, China, Egypt, etc. I figured that for 5th grade I would try to display different genres and switch them out every few weeks to help the students understand them better. I used the free genre poster download from Beth Newingham (who coincidentally inspired me to start a classroom economy years ago).

My photo isn't the best, and there is an inconvenient glare, but I currently have up Informational, Mystery, and Realistic Fiction. My hope is that they not only better understand genre, but maybe they'll pick up and read some of the books I have displayed. Books are so much more welcoming when you can see the front cover and not just the spine!

I am also planning on adding an insert to the students' Read and Respond that includes a handy guide to genre.

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).

Ready, Set, Read (and Respond)!

In my years of teaching (this will be number 9) I am usually trying new things (or improve things that work) and easily get tired of the same thing year-to-year. The one exception to this would be Read and Respond. The first school I taught at used the Success for All (SFA) reading program. It was a phenomenal program that really helped students make huge gains in reading and writing. It especially benefited the students of that particular school, which was nearly all English Language Learners, because students quickly became proficient in English too. One of the requirements was that students, of all grade levels, read for a minimum of 30 minutes everyday, even weekends. They were also not to write a summary of what they read, rather they were to respond to what they read in a meaningful way. And so I have kept Read and Respond over the years although due to my current school district's policy I have had to reduce the minimum time and days (20 minutes Monday through Thursday).

Last week we put together our Read and Respond notebook which consist of pasting the directions and grading rubric in the cover of a composition notebook. Then we practiced writing responses using the book I read aloud to them. They have only been doing this for a few days but some of them are already doing a extraordinary job! 

For Read and Respond students can read fiction or non-fiction and I require them to.....
* write the title
* write the date they read
* write the pages they read
* write the genre
* respond to what they read in 5 sentences
* get a parent signature to verify their reading

This is a model entry that blew me away! It says: 

"In this section India Opal Buloni found out that Winn-Dixie is afraid of thunderstorms. I can relate to that because my dog Graham is afraid of thunderstorms too. He whines and scratches at the door just like India had described of what Winn-Dixie did. Graham is also like Winn-Dixie because he won't lie down during the storm because he gets too nervous. After the storm is over Winn-Dixie calmed down just like Graham does."

At the bottom of her entry you can see the score she gave herself for Reading and Language Arts. I will grade these periodically, and I will also ask students to score themselves and score each other too. 

Ready to use Read and Respond in your classroom too? The Read and Respond Journal pages are available in my TpT store. You will receive a teacher direction page, student direction page and rubric to paste into a notebook, alternate blackline master for photocopying, and Read and Respond passes to use for incentives/prizes.