Reading Logs as Artifacts of a Reading Life

CC image by Skokie Public Library

September is just about over, meaning that September Reading Logs are about to roll in. Since they were handed out early in the second week of school (the last week of August), students have been to the library to get started on their home reading life, reflected on themselves as readers, made reading goals, and jumped into a unit on reading response and interpretation. They were given the instructions: Read your home book 5 days a week for 20 minutes each time (minimum) and record your reading on your Reading Log (date, title, time started/time ended/total time, page started/page ended/total pages, comment).

I am very much looking forward to seeing these September Reading Logs. They are rich with information about my students, and are filled with areas for reflecting:

1. What books are they reading? This can give me a clue into the types of books students enjoy, making it easier for me to suggest next books.
2. What level of books are they reading? I'd like to record the title of the book each student is reading, and find that book's Lexile and guided reading level (if available). Then I can determine if they are reading above, below, or at "target" (right now, I'm using the lowest Lexile score in the range determined by the fall MAP Reading test). Again, this helps me understand the students' tastes and comfort level, and gives me an insight into what would be a good next book for them.
3. When are they reading? While thinking about ourselves as readers, we read an article from the Atlantic Wire called "What Kind of Book Reader Are You? A Diagnostic Guide" (I edited it down to the most appropriate ones before handing it out). One of the categories is The Sleepy-Time Reader. Not surprisingly, many of my students are Sleepy-Time Readers, reserving their reading for post-homework, post-video game or social networking time, often the last thing to do before falling asleep. We talked a bit about how that could affect their rate, productivity, and comprehension. Some students decided to make it their reading goal to read at other times of the day as a way to grow as a reader. However, I will not be surprised to see "10:30-10:45" or later on some Reading Logs. 
4. How fast are they reading? According to the Teacher's College Reading and Writing Project Reading Institute, students should be reading about a page a minute at this age. If they aren't reading that quickly, it could indicate several things: 1) the book is too hard for them-- students could be looking up words or having to reread because they lose comprehension, 2) they are reading at the wrong time of day-- see Sleepy-Time Reader above-- or with too many distractions around, 3) they are just not very interested in the book, or 4) they are not reading enough of the book at one time to get into the story, and therefore need to re-read to pick up the thread before going on. This is a good conversation to have with students when they are reading slowly. Depending on the reason, there is usually a fairly straightforward solution.
5. Are they reading? For some, this is the bottom line question. Unfortunately, some students don't meet the 100 minutes per week minimum. Sometimes it's because they are busy with sports teams or other extracurriculars, leaving little time for homework. Sometimes they have too much other homework, and push reading to the side as a lower priority. Sometimes they just don't like reading. Whatever the reason, this becomes yet another problem-solving conversation to have, first with the student, and if the trend continues, then with the parents.

When students also do this kind of reflecting on their Reading Log, they can see that the log itself helps them to track their reading life and, especially, their reading goal. They might find that they have already reached their reading goal, and there is something else indicated on the Reading Log that needs to be worked out. They might find that they haven't made much (or any) progress toward their reading goal, and they need to keep the goal in mind as they continue their reading next month. If they reflect on their reading habits every month, the Reading Log stays fresh as a data collection tool with a purpose, rather than another piece of homework drudgery. They will be more honest about their reading lives, and it puts the responsibility for growing as a reader right where it needs to be: in the students' own hands.

Summary: Does it mean the same thing across content areas?

Image from robsrelnide website

We've been in school for four weeks now. In a typical series of events, I recently learned that the science teachers rearranged their units this year so that they can teach the environmental science unit before we head off to the tropical rainforest of Thailand at the end of October. That makes sense. What I also learned recently is that the project students worked on for a few weeks was a webquest in which they researched 25 ecosystems, took notes on their research, and made a slideshow that highlighted 5 they felt were most important. OK, good project.

Image from mytinyphone website

Meanwhile, next door in social studies, our first project in the Native Americans unit involved researching 8 elements of civilization for a specific tribe, taking notes from the research, and making a slideshow with an oral presentation highlighting the top 3 factors that helped them thrive. Hmmm... very familiar.

I found out about this overlap as we were both finishing our respective projects. The kids didn't complain, I just overheard my colleague discussing the project with his curriculum partner. In some ways, the two projects complimented each other nicely. We both had the same expectations for note-taking, thanks to the extensive work our media specialist has done with classes in the middle school on research. The science teacher reviewed/taught students the skills of Google presentations, so I didn't have to; thus the slideshows in my class went quickly. And because my project involved an oral component which the science slideshow did not, I lifted the expectations.

However, all of that was serendipitous. I wish the science teachers had mentioned their re-arranged curriculum units to us social studies teachers, and especially explained their learning activity. If we had known we were doing similar projects, we could have either 1) better coordinated our teaching of the skills since I assume there was a lot of overlap, or 2) one of us could have done a different project so students had a range of learning opportunities during that time period.

With that in mind, I also overheard him saying something about getting summaries from his students after they read the science chapter. Summarizing is a skill I teach in English Language Arts as well, so I was curious if my colleague taught summarizing the same way I did, and if so, I could spend less time teaching it since he already had. I found my opportunity to ask about his summaries, and discovered that his use of the term is not at all how I use the term with my students.

My science colleague breaks the science chapter down into sections, each section with a specific topical question. Students read the chapter sections and then write important information that answers the question in a bullet pointed list. This bullet pointed list is what he is calling a summary.

I'm glad I asked. I was able to express that, to me, what he is calling a summary is what I would call notes. When I ask the students for a summary, I would expect students to take those notes and write them into a short 2-4 sentence paragraph that explains the main idea of a passage and major supporting details.

Fortunately, we have a good working relationship, and he could hear my interpretation without feeling attacked, and could also see the benefit of having a common understanding of some terms we both use. We decided it was worth bringing to a cross-curricular grade-level team meeting to see if we can come to some agreement about the term "summary".

With the CCSS expecting more content-related reading and writing, it is important that the door is opened to these cross-curricular discussions. Raising the students' literacy level means that we need to be clear and consistent with them if we are to help them use the same skills and strategies flexibly and fluently in any context. It won't work if each of us has our own definition of common terms like "summary".

Parent Communication: Showing Off Learning

It has come to our Middle School principal's attention that some of our parents feel disconnected from their children's learning in school. They are used to being involved with their children while doing homework during Elementary School. They are used to helping out in the Elementary classrooms. They are used to looking through work samples with their children at home and the teacher during conferences.

Things change in Middle School. Kids are more independent and get their homework done without parental help or supervision. They are more secretive, and often want to work in their rooms with the doors closed. They don't voluntarily show their parents their writing pieces, technology projects, or tests. Middle School teachers only occasionally invite parents to classroom events, and we don't have homeroom parent liaisons. When we have conferences, we discuss grades and study skills.

So the question becomes: How can we Middle School teachers help our parent community understand what is going on in their children's school lives? How can they understand what their children are learning and why we are teaching in this way? How can we ensure that they see the summative assessments, really see them for the types and quality of learning they represent?

One vehicle that is a starting point is a quick "newsletter"-like blurb at the beginning of each unit. This blurb, sent via email and posted on the class website, could provide an overview of the unit, the types of learning activities, and the enduring understandings and/or essential questions that drive the unit. This unit overview can keep parents in the loop for what is going on in school.

The harder question is how best to share the assessments. Ideally, students should sit down with their parents and talk them through the assignment and reflect on their performance. Parents should ask questions to find out more about their children's learning related to the assessment. They should talk together about what went well, what was challenging, and set goals for future performances.

In the "real world", these parent-child conversations rarely happen unless there is either a structure provided, like student-led conferences, or accountability, like some kind of a sign-off, built in. As we do more and more paperless assessments, having a parent sign-off that they've seen the artifact becomes troublesome-- where do they sign? Asking parents to send an email to the teacher is a time-consuming request, which also clogs up the teacher's inbox. And just because a parent signs off that they've seen an assignment does not guarantee that there has been any conversation around it.

At our department meeting this week, we are going to discuss this question of sharing assessments, especially writing pieces, with parents. I hope that our collective brain can come up with a workable solution. Without seeing first-hand what their children are capable of achieving, some parents (the ones talking to the principal) are doubting the quality of our program. We teachers know about the great stuff happening in our rooms. Now we need to ensure that our parent community knows it too.

Show, Don't Tell: Reflections on Back to School NIght

Now that school has begun and the first frantic two weeks are over, I can return to this blog. I feel guilty for missing last week's post, but I just didn't have the energy or creativity left to write. Sad but true.

I've done most all of the things teachers do at the beginning of the year. I learned my students' names. I gathered some personal info through get-to-know-you games. I gathered some academic info through surveys and reflections. I set up files and data collection systems. The final beginning-of-the-year hurdle looms on Monday: the dreaded Back to School Night, also known as The Night of Speed Talking.

image found on the online schools website

I've presented at a lot of Back to School Nights over my almost 30 years of teaching, at various schools, and for various grade levels. Somehow it all boils down to the impossible feat of conveying my entire curriculum, grading practices, and expectations for both students and parents-- for two subjects-- in about 12 minutes. Thus, I have developed the ability to speed talk. At the end of 12 minutes, I am left breathless, the parents look dazed, and I am inevitably hit with a handful of parents who linger to ask, "How's my kid doing?"

I wish there were another way to show parents what we do all day with their children. I wish I could capture the excited energy of last week's Language Arts lesson when students were ranting--in writing-- about issues they were passionate about ("parents coming into my room without knocking" was a popular one), and then looking at the other side and thinking about a possible solution. I wish I could show them the kids' faces when they heard Martin Luther King III speak at the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, explaining how far we've come and yet how far we still have to go for an equal and just world for all. I wish they could sit in my comfy green chair as I read aloud a short story in the reading corner and listen to the kids respond to the beautiful words and make connections to big important ideas. I wish they could listen in on my kids talking about what they are reading and books they love. I wish they could read the annotations in the margins of the article we read about why sports teams named "Indians", "Redskins", and "Braves" are a racist slur, annotations that basically said, "Wow, I never thought of it like that!" I want them to see moments when new ideas crash into students' minds, and their eyes light up with the possibilities.

That's what my class is about. That's why I am still teaching, and why I am still passionate about it. I wish parents could be the proverbial "fly on the wall" so they could see the magic happen.

I don't have the time this year to do anything but Speed Talk during my 12 minutes with parents. But maybe next fall, during the first two weeks, I can capture some of the excitement with photos and short video clips. After all, how many times have I voiced "Show, don't tell"?