Student Created Reading Trackers

Reading logs get a bad rap. And they have a bad rap for a reason -- the why. The why behind tracking minutes, pages, and parent signatures is often accountability. But are kids really buying in and actually doing the work? I'd argue many kids are reading but the log isn't telling them much about their reading habits or their reading lives. They are simply "checking off " the boxes. And the others are just filling it out randomly or having a parent sign off. I'd given up logs quite a while a while ago but I still needed wanted something for kids to use to help them navigate and look closer at their reading lives. 

Last year, I had the idea for my students to create their own "reading trackers" to help them keep track of what matters to them -- genres, books, formats, etc. With everything happening last year, the trackers started off strong but weren't always kept up with. However, this year, I started with them again and they've already started evolving. Some students quickly realized that they needed to take their trackers digital so that they had easier access and the ability to create graphs in Google. Other students realized that tracking the number of books wasn't giving them enough or the information they wanted, so they began changing or editing their tracker's purpose. I've been blown away by the ownership and self-reflection. Students used their trackers to begin to set short term goals and monitor their own progress. I'm hoping the exciement continues as we work towards our first quarter goals in Reader's Workshop. 

Here's a few of the amazing trackers kids created: 

Just a note: These are all from our launch day so none of these are "finished."

I'm excited to update this post as kids work on improving their trackers and continue to use them through the end of the quarter (or longer) as we continue to set goals and work on monitoring our progress. 

How to do you inspire students to track their reading?

Summer Reading Challenge

If you're like me, you worked really hard setting up an independent reading climate this year in your classroom. I know I worked really hard to building a reading life for my students all year. Through book talks and book clubs, many of my students left with a love of reading. Throughout the year we also used a variation of Donalyn Miller's 40 Book Challenge. If you haven't heard of her 40 Book Challenge check out her 'revisited' blog post {here}.

Today, on my first Friday of summer vacation I created my own summery take on the 40 Book Challenge.

I give you the 20 Book Summer Challenge! 

This summer reading log has spaces for 20 different books. All "genres" have been replaced with summer topics such as "Family Vacation Fiction" or "Hot Reads!" Templates are included for both a blank student choice fill-in or 5th and 6th grade recommendations for each category!

I'm going to email this to my students to help keep the summer reading going! Hopefully, a few of my fifth graders will take me up on this summer reading challenge! Last year we participated in the Scholastic Summer Reading program but this year, I thought my students may want an additional challenge since so many of them loved our 40 Book Challenge this year!

What do you do in your classroom to help promote summer reading?

Communicating Incomplete Online Work

It's been a while since I blogged so I thought, I'd check in and write a quick post about a grading trick that works for me. If you're like me and have students complete assignments online, it's often hard to keep track of write-ups or communicate information to parents about unfinished work.

A trick that works for me is using LABELS! I purchased a huge pack from Quill at the beginning of the year for a really cheap, cheap price. Labels are my way of communicating information to parents via our student planner (next to the write-up) so that parents don't need "log on" and check up on students. I also find that they help give me a visual reminder of who needs a write-up for missing work. Once the label is gone - I know I've met with that student about incomplete/missing online work.

Here are my labels for January's online reading log:

I only filled them out for students that did not complete one or more of my requirements. This was just as easy as recording their names on a post-it note but much more useful.

I also send home a small paper grade sheet with all students, like a graded paper. This goes home with all their graded work for the week. However, sometimes those papers tend to get "lost" where a label is not so easily removed from the planner!

What are some of your favorite grading tricks for online work?

Tried it Tuesday: Learn2Earn.org Update!

I've done several posts about how much I'm absolutely loving Learn 2 Earn.Org {check them out here}. But, I thought an update and link-up with Holly over at Fourth Grade Flipper for Tried it Tuesday was needed! When I first blogged about Learn2Earn.org, we were just starting it out and going for it... so now after two months, I thought an update may be good for those of you on the fence!

Recap, Learn2Earn.Org is a new start-up company that tracks student reading. The aim of the website is to have students logging reading minutes online. They have a website at Learn2Earn.Org and even an Instagram {Learn2EarnOrg} account. They have a fundraising feature perfect for PTO readathons or schoolwide reading challenges so that students can get pledges for all their reading! Right now, our school isn't participating in a reading challenge but my teaching partner and I are loving all the other great things that are happening...

Some of my kiddos have made such a huge growth in their attitude toward reading logs and reading at home -- it is truly amazing! Plus, I don't have all that "paperwork" laying around and minutes to add up each week. Grading can be a little difficult since it's not alphabetical but that's really the only downside to this site! It's easy for the kids to do on an iPad or laptop. My students beg to post responses {a few are on a 13 - 15 day reading streak!} and get online so they can share a book with a friend or buy more stuff for their owls. Right now, titles like "Princess" and "Genius" are the trendy items to buy.

 Here's why I'm loving this site:
- Keeps track of students' books, minutes, and responses
- Created {and editable!} Common Core aligned questions
- Questions are engaging {Tweets, $500 Summary, Book told from an 80 year old character, etc.}
- Responses for fiction and nonfiction
- Averages the responses for you! {And you can set the date range!}
- SOCIAL {Students can comment, recommend, and "like" each other's books}
- Owlvatars!

Here's what I see as a teacher:

And just for fun... 

 

If you're considering joining Learn2Earn.org or want to set up your free Whoooo's Reading Class {Click here} and use my referral link.  The upgrade is $5 dollars a month for custom scoring, custom teacher avatar, side bar of response expectations, and new prompts each month! I'm definitely purchasing the upgrade after winter break because my class is loving this site - so worth $5 dollars a month!

Whooo's trying out other new websites?

Spark Student Motivation: Online Reading Logs!

I've been absentee blogger lately because I haven't felt that I've had much worth sharing as of late. But today, I'm excited to share a new website for logging reading! Thanks to Joanne from Head Over Heels for Teaching for hosting one of my favorite linkys, Spark Student Motivation Saturdays!
Joanne is amazing, she has so many great ideas for "big kids" -- so hop over and check out her blog!

Okay, back to the amazing reading find! My teaching partner, Chelsea, deserves all the credit for finding this gem as an ad on Facebook. The website is called Learn 2 Earn. The website was designed for reading fundraisers. Students are able to log on the the site and for FREE log minutes and books they've read. Then, they can gain sponsors for the minutes or books they've logged. However, after playing around with the site, my teaching partner and I discovered, it'd be great for our online reading logs! Teachers can create a class "tree" for free and easily set up student accounts. They even have a way to print out a class set of directions and user names and passwords for each student. We've been thinking about going digital because this year our paper version was a real struggle for many of our kids and not very motivating. We do have our 40 Book Challenge in place but that hasn't had the pull as it has in years past.


So, what's just so great about Learn 2 Earn ?... 

I think pictures are worth more than words. Here's some of the features like an "Owl-vatar", owl shop, and profile page that had my fifth graders begging to use the iPads during our "Friday freetime" at intervention.

Why is this great for teachers?

As a teacher, I can post questions for students to answer. You can choose from Common Core Aligned questions by grade or write your own.

When students can respond they show up in my digital turn in tray. You can navigate through the responses one by one or see them all in your "news feed."  I can score the responses online and provide feedback. Teachers can leave visible comments or leave comments just visible to the student who wrote the response. Students can also comment on each others' books to create a reading dialogue outside of class (WHAT?!). Think of this like a safe Facebook Page all about books!

We just launched this Friday and when I woke up today, I had over 40 responses to review and score. Now, many students did not do a stellar job with answering some of the responses completely - but with the invisible comment tool, I was ale to leave them messages to fix their work so it could be re-scored. My biggest take away was that my students were excited about reading and recommending books to each other -- that is priceless! We can work on extended responses from there!

Need a Freebie?! Here's a copy of our directions/requirements (pdf version and word version) for our students if you're interesting in starting your own Learn 2 Earn.org Whooos Reading Class Tree! 

What gets your students motivated to read more?

Tried it Tuesday: The Lemonade War & Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge

I've been absent far too long. These past few months have flown by and I've been trying to tackle all my end of the year projects for both school and home. I've really neglected my blog and I'm going to try and be more diligent.

 With that being said, I have two Tried it Tuesdays to share with everyone today! Thanks again to the always fabulous Holly over at Fourth Grade Flipper for hosting and sharing! Even though I've been MIA, I always read and favorite the great ideas everyone shares.

 

My first share this week is for the book The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davis. Although the book is a little too easy for many of my fifth graders, it does such a great job at teaching so many underlying concepts of economics! This is a must read if you teach economics in 4th or 5th grade! My students preferred the novel over a textbook any day! Plus, reading the novel, means Lemonade Day! This was my first year participating in "Lemonade Day" as dubbed by several coworkers who started this great project a few years back.

While reading, The Lemonade War, students created their own drinks for others to sample. They need to use some of the advertising techniques discussed in the book as well as in class. As as well create a drink, people would want to try! As fifth grade teachers, we also added in a portion of the project based on interdependence and globalization. Students had to state somewhere in their advertising why it'd be beneficial to trade with other states/countries/etc. in the creation of their drink. 

Requirements:
- Creative name
- Slogan for drink
- Advertising technique
- Statement about interdependence
- Price of drink

Here are some snapshots of our Lemonade Day:

Our Lemonade Day was a huge success! We have many young entrepreneurs and marketing execs. on our team. Hats off to a great book and fun end of the year "project."

Since we've read so many great books in class this year, I decided to try out the Scholastic Reading Challenge to keep my students motivated and reading over the summer. Thanks to my teaching partner for hearing about this easy to manage summer "reading log."

Scholastic allows you to enter your class roster into their reading website. Simply go the Scholastic Reading Challenge page and choose "Educator." Students will be assigned a user name and password. I just cut out the strips after printing but you could also give students the cute user name cards that Scholastic has on their website. Then students can go on each week and "log" their minutes read. We offered a prize to any students who reads 1,000 minutes over the summer.

Students can also see how their school's minutes compare to other areas of the country. There are also lots of great videos and facts centered around this year's theme of space.

The best part, you can check up on your readers! You log on like placing a book order and can see the minutes read by each student in your class. Super easy to check on their progress or verify their "winnings" next year. It's easy and very  motivating to several of my students. It's great too because I can see how many winners, I'll have before next school year to plan my "prizes" accordingly. If you're still in school, definitely share the challenge with your students.

What have you tried this week?

Spark Student Motivation: 30 Book Challenge

It's Saturday, which means I'm focused on helping keep my students motivated! Today, I'm linking up with Joanne from Head Over Heels for Teaching to share how I keep my students reading between book clubs. Reading during book clubs isn't really a choice in my room. We get excited about the genre and the authors and then students need to read at least two books from my picks before they are "done" and able to move on. But of course, they are always welcome to read more...

But what happens after students "finish" a book club study? That's where the 30 Book Challenge comes into play! I was inspired by a Pin I saw on a Pinterest from Runde's Room's Teachers Pay Teachers store. I thought, This looks like something my fifth graders would LOVE... so, why not give it a try! My fifth graders love a good competition, only (shhhh!) this competition is with themselves. I found this great recording sheet online Google Docs. Click the image to get you copy!

Students each get a set of the "rules" at the beginning of the year for the challenge. All books read during our class read aloud do not count. These should be books students are reading independently. We put our chart in our data sections of our binders and then it's teacher hands off. The rest is up to the students. There is a special reward at the end of the year for those that complete my challenge! Last year our prize pack include a free personal LaRosa's pizza, Culver's ice cream, a popsicle during class, bonus raffle tickets for our end of the year raffle, and  personalized bookmarks. I was able to get all the certificates donated through student reward programs by various restaurants so the prizes cost me ZERO dollars, except for the freeze pops ;)

This challenge really seems to motivate many students to keep reading even when they have "finished" our in class reading work. It also gets my "fiction junkies" into some nonfiction information texts and biographies. Plus, there are still 8 free choice squares... Who doesn't want some choice?

Our school also has a huge annual fundraising and reading competition each year. It's kick off is a video of principals, teachers, and other students reading and getting excited ABOUT reading! This year even author Cynthia Lord even joined our video! We just wrapped up this year's Recording Breaking Reading Challenge. Our goal as a school was to read 1,000,000 minutes! Students could use any books finished during our school wide campaign for my 30 Book Challenge!  The week end in a victory cheer as we exceeded our goal of hitting 1,000,000 minutes! That means teachers and principals will be racing in front of students next Friday for the ultimate bragging rights!

The best part, most of the work is hands off from my end - students only need to record evidence they read by stopping and jotting about the books on their weekly reading log and recording the books in the "Books I Read in 5th Grade Chart" in the data sections of their binders for books to count. You can grab my In School and Out of School Reading Log for free by clicking the image below. 

How to do you keep reading motivation alive?