The Importance of Reading Logs

The Importance of Reading Logs

For those of us who are responsible for a child’s growth in reading, few things are more important than keeping an eye on the actual amount of reading that a child is doing. To that end, each reader in each and every reading workshop keeps a reading log, and I can’t stress enough the critical importance of this tool. I’ve found that students value their logs most if they are kept in a cumulative fashion, with recent logs combined with those from other weeks of the year (our logs are the kept in the children’s Reading Life Folders). This allows readers themselves and others who care about their reading to refer to the log for evidence of growth across time.

The log is a record of the book title, the level, the date, the reading place (home or school), the page at which reading began and the page at which reading ended, and the minutes spent reading. At the start of each reading session (both at school and at home), the children pull out their reading logs and record the page number at which they’ll start that day’s reading, and they record the start time. Then, at the end of reading, they record the number of total minutes spent reading and the number of pages read.

The log is not merely a tool for the teacher to check in on a child’s reading homework. It is also a tool for deeper reflection, and for teaching. For example, as the teacher moves about the room, the log makes it easy for the teacher to notice that in, say, seventeen minutes of reading time, a particular reader may have read fifteen pages (which is about what we’d expect) or four pages (which would lead us to want to do some further research). We might talk with the child and say, “When I sit with you and look over your reading, one thing I notice is whether you are reading about seven pages in ten minutes. Usually (but not always) if a reader is reading less than that, something’s going on that is not quite perfect.” Then, we’ll likely ask the child to read aloud so we can listen for fluency and so we can make sure the child isn’t being stumped by tricky words every other minute. We’ll also want to examine whether the child is doing too much writing about reading, and whether he or she is engaged in the reading. Additionally, we’ll use the logs to notice the amount of reading the child is doing at home. We might notice, for example, that the child does the assigned amount of reading every night (30 minutes) but never goes beyond that, getting lost in the text. We’ll address that with the child so that we can teach into it. These are just a few of the many things we study when referring to the logs.

PLEASE TURN OVER. CONTINUED ON BACK…

Children, as well as teachers, study their reading data. They review the data on their reading like runners might study their times or dieters their weight, and there is a lot of emphasis on these data being scientific. For example, they work alongside their partners to notice similarities or differences in the number of pages they tend to read at school versus the number of pages they read at home. Then they’ll reflect on these patterns: How much do I tend to read in a minute? In twenty minutes? Do I read more slowly when I read longer? How strong are my muscles for reading at home? In school? How does my reading life at home compare with my classmates? What do they do that I could try? How is my reading place working out for me? Do I need to try a different one? What am I learning about how I can make my reading life as good as it can be?

It is crucial that the child records precise and honest data, every single time he or she reads. If children distort the amount of reading they did at home, then each day they’ll be forced to read from pages that don’t make sense to them. Just as importantly, false or inaccurate data would make it unlikely that the teacher and other adults could garner helpful information from the logs in order to teach the young reader how to maintain a healthy reading life, and it would make it difficult, if not impossible, for the reader to reflect on his or her progress in meaningful ways and then challenge himself or herself to grow as a literate person.

I look forward, with great anticipation, to all of the amazing experiences the children will have, and all of the growth they’ll achieve, as readers this year. The most important thing that you and I can do, both in school and at home, is to keep a watchful eye on the actual amount of reading that your child is doing. To that end, the reading log will serve as a significant tool in the work that lies ahead of us all. Anything you can do to ensure that your young reader records honest and accurate data on the log every day will be a great help to all of us who have a vested interest in your child’s reading life.

Thank you,

Ray Conetta