Authentic Alternatives to Reading Logs

Some items you will likely have to include in your log are:

• The title and author of the book.
• The dates you read which page.
• The amount of time you spent reading each day.
• Key themes of the book.
• Major characters and plot developments.
• Questions you have as you read.

A study published a few years ago, to surprisingly limited attention, in the Journal of Research in Education found that, indeed, reading logs can have a detrimental effect on students’ interest in and attitudes toward reading.

If you’re unfamiliar with reading logs, these logs remind students to read, as well as encourage them to record everything they’ve read. Teachers and parents use reading logs to show the students the book titles they have read and encourage them to keep up the good work.

In intermediate grades, reading logs are useful to help students and teachers track reading volume and progress. Also, reading logs put ownership of learning back into the students’ hands and allow them to own their learning.

• Reading Log Alternative #1: Talk. People talk about books they read.
• Reading Log Alternative #2: Status.
• Reading Log Alternative #3: Booksource Classroom.
• Reading Log Alternative #4: Reviews.
• Reading Log Alternative #5: Tableaux.
• Reading Log Alternative #7: Sketch Something.

The use of reading logs is a common practice in my school. They are used as a homework piece to mainly keep students accountable for their reading at home. Time and effort goes into these logs on the part of teachers monitoring them and students and families completing them.

The purpose of reading logs in the intermediate grades is to help teachers to track the reading volume of their students and for students to keep track of their reading lives.

For many students, the reading log serves one purpose only: to prove their reading to their teacher. Used in this way, reading becomes a chore, something a reader is forced to do, rather than chooses to do. When used in a celebratory manner, reading logs become artifacts of our reading lives.

Introduce the textbook and encourage use of supplemental materials the textbook provides, identify discipline-specific terminology, have students mark-up readings, structure the reading by providing questions to be answered ahead of class, use the textbook in class to emphasize its importance, teach students to ask …

10 authentic ways to hold students accountable for home reading

1. 1) Replace reading logs with book journals.
2. 2) Show kids your own book journal and talk about why it’s useful to keep a reading record.
3. 3) Allow students to keep digital book journals.
4. 4) Encourage kids to record more than just titles and authors.

If You Have to Use Reading Logs

1. Ask the students. Ask the students their feelings on reading logs and consider their feedback carefully.
2. Ask the parents.
3. Differentiate.
4. Keep it in class.
5. Stop rewarding.
6. Make it an experiment.
7. Leave time for reflection.
8. Don’t forget the purpose of reading logs.

Stuck in Neutral by Terry Trueman.

Just like they help you in keeping records, a reading log is a smart form chosen by teachers at primary level to keep the study regime of their pupils on the right track while parents can also use them to make sure their children maintain a reading habit.

A reading log is actually a diary or a journal which lets a person record their reading activity. It is basically a note of what you have read so far, when you read it and how many pages did you read. It simply summarizes what a person reads, highlighting the date, pages and sometimes,…