Reading journals are already part of your daily classroom practice and we know that they are useful tools, so why not use them as a formative? In this clip, you will see how students provide evidence of targets using reading journals. Teachers engage students in targets and skills in whole group instruction. After engaging in whole group instruction, students can use their reading journals in small group and independent practice to show evidence of these targets.
Resources for Implementation: Primary Reading Journals
Your Turn: In the comments share your Ah-Ha's and connections relating to reading journals as a formative.
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I love that this assessment format is "built in" to our daily routine and instruction! What a valuable, effective assessment format! :)
ReplyDeleteYES! Well said! Assessment is happening during the intentional learning activities!
DeleteI love this idea of using the reading journals to formatively assess your students. I'd like to use the metacognition sentence starters as well as the "Fab 5" with my students. We already use the +, -, ?, ! chart a lot, so it would be nice to get them thinking in a different way about the stories they read. Thank you for this! I am excited to see more Formatives in 5!
ReplyDeleteYes Kaity, those are such great strategies to get kids thinking about what they read and then seeing them use "Fab 5" or the sentence starters in action in their journals.
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ReplyDeleteGreat ideas! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteGood reminder of a valuable tool.
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ReplyDeleteI really liked the ideas and activities to show if students are reaching their learning targets.
ReplyDeleteI am really excited about trying the reading journals with my students. I am really going to try to do as much explaining as I can with my students so that they see in the beginning what it is suppose to look like.
ReplyDeleteThanks Kristie and Team for your work. Love to see the whole group learning being reinforced in small group. Then showing learning (evidence) in student writing.
ReplyDeleteMakes so much sense, thank you!
ReplyDeleteLove the K-2 example of using a simple folded paper journal for that unit. I often struggle with the bulk of a notebook when writing with younger students. This was a good reminder to keep it simple.
ReplyDeleteYes.....agree with Emily's thought "built in". Use of journals would be procedural and a routine that many learners would thrive on. They would be predictable and yet changing based on the skill focus. Using a journal, allows for a teacher, students and parents to see growth over time. What the journal looks like early in the year will be very different from what it will look like in the spring. Using the journal will allow the teacher to see authentic independent application of what each child is learning. From this point the teacher can coach students to stretch from where they are performing! In kindergarten, we start out with drawings and can transition to labeled drawings and simple sentences. Looking ahead and getting students to reflect on their learning, I like that we can tie into proficiency scales and students can identify where they see themselves at. Emerging - I still need my teacher's help Nearing Proficiency- I can do it with clues from the anchor chart/drawings with labels Proficient - I can do it on my own.
ReplyDeleteYes, it is indeed so rewarding to students, parents, and teachers to be able to look back over time and see the progress that has been made. Too often it is easy to forget where the learning has started and how far they have come!
DeleteThis is a good reminder that assessment is a continuous cycle that is easily incorporated into our daily routine.
ReplyDeleteYes, it doesn't have to be "one more thing" to do, assessments can be things you are already using and doing in your daily teaching.
DeleteI have been using Reading Journals for quite a long time with my students. However, the examples gave me some ideas on new ways to add to our reading journals.
ReplyDelete-Brittany Mion
I was happy to see that I am already using a lot of these strategies in my daily reading instruction. I also spied a journal I created being used in another classroom. Cool! We are better together! I'm glad someone else didn't have to reinvent the wheel.
ReplyDeleteYES! We are better together and YES... A confirmation and/or reminder that determining what kids know and don't yet know can be done through many of the fabulous strategies we already have in place! :-)
DeleteI appreciate this video very much. I often try to sneak writing into the day without the students realizing it isn't Writer's Workshop. I do have a question. In kindergarten, for the students who are unable match letter sounds yet or need assistance, I will allow them to draw pictures of their thinking. The problem I have is that I instinctively want to help them spell a word or label their thinking and that tends to take a while. I feel I sometimes loose sight of the goal which is to record our thinking. My question is, do I try and pick and choose how I help with writing during this time or just save it for Writer's Workshop?
ReplyDeleteAlso, what does everyone do with their books or pages when they are done? Send them home, save for conferences,???
Hey Sofia, great question. There is a difference between reading journals and writing journals. Usually when we think of reading journals where students are tracking their thinking, it is just yet another avenue for writing, not necessarily worrying about the spelling or perfect structure. It's just a way for students to track comprehension and understand text through writing. If my goal in the reading journal is to take a look at what they are thinking and help them comprehend text, then I wouldn't spend too much time on the labeling and spelling of words with their pictures if they are not quite there yet. So, yes I think picking and choosing how you help with writing during reading journal time is a good plan, because you don't want it to take up your entire reading group time. Writers workshop time is definitely where you want to spend the time with your students helping them spell phonetically and label correctly and get letters matching beginning sounds and pictures.
DeleteWhen I was in the classroom I did save my journals through the end of the year so parents could see growth; however, I was in intermediate at the time when I used reading journals and theirs was just a composition notebook. So they had that one, plus maybe one more the entire year, where kindergarten will have a few more especially if they are the small ones, so I would say if you have a file folder for each student if you can stand to save at least a few of them to show growth to parents, that would be awesome. I hope that helps.
What a good reminder! I love writing to response when reading and the kids are so engaged as well. It is a great reminder that it is a formative assessment and one that should be shared with parents. I also have the kids read and record their responses on Seesaw with a "book snip." I loved seeing the different journals and anchor charts being used as well. Thanks Kristie for all your hard work!
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DeleteTegan Leffler
Tegan, I love the book snips, they are great ways to get kids thinking about text and yet another way to "journal" with technology :) I have shared that idea with several other teachers and they absolutely love it. Thank you!
DeleteThanks for refreshing my memory and for the new ideas on the benefits of reading journals!! Thanks for sharing, Kristie! Julie Schopp
ReplyDeleteThese are great ideas and reminders of ways we can benefit from some of the tools we already use in varied ways. Love it! Thank you for sharing! Paula Simcox
ReplyDeleteYES!!! Exactly....
DeleteThese are great ideas and thanks for sharing. I love using reading journals with my fifth graders. They are such a valuable tool and show the progression of their learning. Journals are also a great resource for students to refer to throughout the year as we put anchor charts in them as well as graphic organizers. Thanks for the great reminder!
ReplyDeleteRaye Alwood