Do you use a reading notebook? I like to use a reading notebook to help students keep everthing together. I started using one years ago and continued to add to it as the years have passed. At the start of the year, students put their names on and decorate their notebooks. We spend the first few weeks of school setting up our notebooks and making some reading goals. Then we get into the year-long process of filling the Reading Notebook.
The thing that used to turn me off from using a notebook was collecting and correcting. Nobody wants to collect 20 marble notebooks and bring them home right?
So now, I don’t.
Anything I need to grade, doesn’t go in the notebook. Sure, I might grab five notebooks from a small group I am doing, and correct them right on the spot. But, I like to think about our Reading Notebooks as for reference and practice. I copy any anchor charts we are using in class and have my students glue them into their notebooks. This allows them to look back whenever they need to. This helps develop independence and allows multiple anchor charts to be at their fingertips (instead of just the one that is on the chart stand).
After students get the anchor charts glued in, I like to have them use a “stand alone” text to practice the skill. I have, over time, developed texts that are only a paragraph or two long, that go with each topic I teach. This allows students to get instant practice of the skill. I don’t want students to be sitting idly while we talk about a new standard and then shut their notebook and stick it in their desks without actually trying out their new knowledge.
Once they complete the practice we might end there for the day. The next day, or for several days, I pull out a variety of different templates or graphic organizers that they can glue into their notebooks as well. They use these organizers to apply the new skill to something else we are reading in class, or something they are reading independently.
This set up works so well in my classroom and allows us to cycle through the skills and then double back to review or practice again and again!
Check in our Free Resource Library for two FREEBIES to get you started if you think you are interested in using a Reading Notebook in your classroom this year. There is a Readign Notebook Set Up Kit that includes some pages to get your Reading Notebook started, as well as another FREEBIE with a sample standard you can try out in a Reading Notebook. You can see the whole Reading Notebook here.
Be sure to let me know if you are using a reading notebook in your classroom this year and what you like to includes in it!
Enjoy!
~Heather Johnson 33
