Sharing of Best Practices

December 20, 2007
Strategies for Continuing the Focus on Reading Logs

An evening ELA workshop for parents was held to help parents understand the importance of literacy in school and at home. Last year only 12 parents attended, but this year there were over 65 parents. The coach created an overhead displaying an exemplary reading log entry to share with parents to demonstrate the expectations for students to become accountable for building their reading volume and stamina. Conversations about ways parents can support this effort were lively and interactive. The principal attributes the higher participation rate this year to an increased communication campaign to outreach to parents and help them sense the urgency to establish the habit of reading each day and night. Reminder letters, additional parent workshops and the continual conversations from teachers to parents about reading logs also helped boost attendance.

During extended day time once a week, all the students in grades 2-5 gathers in the gym with their books and reading logs and everyone (including all students and their teachers, the principal and assistant principal who are reading the same book together) finds a comfortable spot and reads. At the end of the time which is hushed and focused, the principal stands up and says to all assembled, ”Thank you readers. Please log your work.” This practice has worked amazingly so far. On Fridays and before vacations, the principal gets on the PA system and reminds the students to read and log their work. This clear expectation is becoming embedded in the school culture.

One principal looks forward to her Friday announcements where she begins with a quote of the day and then states the goal for all students to read a lot and use the logs to set goals. The visits to the classrooms reinforce the message.

Each classroom reading visit begins by looking at reading logs which are on students’ desks as they begin accounting for their reading time. The principal can easily assess the progress of a few children quickly. Public goals for each week’s reading, written and displayed by each child, can also be a way to assess progress.
*One way to continue the conversation is to put reading logs on the agenda at the beginning of each grade level meeting. Teachers can begin by looking at student reading logs and discovering patterns which can be addressed during minilessons or conferring or small group instruction. For example, in the fifth grade teachers noticed that their students only wrote fiction to describe a wide variety of books that could be broken down into more specific categories like realistic fiction or historical fiction or fantasy.

TC staff developers and school based coaches have continued to revisit reading logs during professional development. They have helped teachers to plan lesson based on identified needs and how to group students most effectively. Often, meeting are also focusing on the ritual of looking at other kinds of assessment material like conferring notes. What kind of conferences are most often taking place? What is the evidence of growth in the student?

Principals have noticed that helping teachers to see assessments as practical tools to analyze results and improve instruction instead of collecting data because of mandates driven from above requires a change of culture and lots of time for conversation.

The small group lesson modeled in Wendy’s school by Mr. Lam was replicated by one principal to show teachers that students were very capable of analyzing their own logs and then able to set their own goals. One student noticed that she doesn’t read long enough at home and stated that it was because she read with the TV on and that distracted her. Her goal was to read without the TV for longer periods of time. The ability of students to reflect on their actions, notice the patterns and then clearly articulate the problem and solution was a big aha moment for teachers and changed their expectation of what students could do for themselves.

Certificates for students who complete their goals or move up one reading level are one way to demonstrate celebration of successes.

In this intense pressure filled testing season, teachers appreciate principals who can listen to their concerns about acuity results and keep them calm and feeling productive. Clarifying questions like, ”What are the percentage of students who weren’t able to answer the questions?” are helpful. The reassurance from the principal that reading and writing workshop are the most important way to prepare students to do well on the tests during the school day (along with appropriate and strategic test preparation after school or on Saturdays or over vacation) are also important to keep teachers focused on what matters most.

The attention to making sure that our most struggling readers have additional time for reading just right books and are not pulled away from reading or writing workshop for intervention services led many principals to schedule interventions before or after school through flexible scheduling. Many principals are exploring how to use extended day time for more reading and are monitoring how much time students can read during reading workshop.