Creating and Updating a ReadingTerritories List

Adam Pyles

Objectives: Sixth Grade

Competency Goal 1: The learner will use language to express individual perspectives drawn from personal or related experience.

1.02 Explore expressive materials that are read, heard, and viewed by:

  • generating a learning log or journal.

1.04 Reflect on learning experiences by:

  • describing personal learning growth and changes in perspective.
  • identifying changes in self throughout the learning process.

Competency Goal 5: The learner will respond to various literary genres using interpretive and evaluative processes.

5.01ncrease fluency, comprehension, and insight through a meaningful and comprehensive reading program by:

  • reading self-selected literature and other materials of individual interest.

5.02 Study the characteristics of literary genres (fiction, nonfiction, drama, and poetry) through:

  • reading a variety of literature and other text (e.g., novels, autobiographies, myths, essays,

Time Needed: This lesson will take approximately 15-20 minutes.

Purpose: The purpose of this min-lesson is to encourage the students to start and maintain a reading territories list. Students can see the benefits immediately. The list will help them keep track of authors and genres that they have read. It will encourage the student to try new genres if they see that they are lacking in a particular field of reading. For example, the student may see that they have read several books in the horror genre, but realize that they have not read any in the poetry area.

This can also be viewed as a wish list for students. Students can keep track of authors or titles that they feel may be interesting. If students are avid readers they may give reading territory list to friends and relatives for holidays or birthdays, enabling them to have a running list of titles or authors that they are interested in.

This can also be a source of pride for the students as well. The reading territory list can have two sections, what they have read and what they want to read. As the section of material read grows, it becomes a source of pride for the students.

Materials Required: the only materials for this would be notebooks or journals for students to write in, pens or pencils for them to write with, and a previously prepared reading territories list by the teacher for model and demonstration. This list can either be prepared as an overhead or as a handout.

Script: “I was in a used bookstore this weekend and I was totally unprepared. All around me were rows and rows of books, cheaply priced, yet I didn’t know where to begin. The reason for that is that I did not have my reading territories list. A reading territories list is a list with two main parts: what I have read and what I want to read. The part that concerns what I have read is a running list of titles or authors that I have read. I keep these in a word document on my computer so that when I make changes, it will be really easy to go in and rearrange some stuff. This part of the list allows me to see the type of literature that I have been reading lately. It allows me to see what genres I have not explored so that when I get bored reading a certain type of story, I know exactly what else I can try to add some variety to my readings.”

“The other part of the reading territories list lets me keep a list of books I want to try. This is a way that I don’t have to remember every title or author that I hear that may sound interesting. Here is my reading territories list.” (Teacher puts copy of his or her reading territories list on an overhead so that students can see how it is arranged.)

“So what I want everyone to do now is to make a list in their journal. Divide this list into what I have read and what I want to read. Start listing authors and titles to either side.” (Give them about five minutes to work on their list).

“Would anyone like to share their list?” (Allow a couple of minutes for sharing.)

“Alright that’s great. It sounds like we have some diverse reading in here. What I want you guys to do now is to either go home and type this up, or if you need to we can arrange for you to do it here. By the end of the school year, I want to see that your list has grown, either by what you have read, or by what you want to read.”