I love to read to my students. Like most children, they LOVE to listen to me read. What children typically don’t love to do is answer questions about what they’ve read. This year, I’ve been able to motivate Every Single Student in my class to write (enthusiastically) about what we’ve read together.
For maybe the first time in my entire career, I have every student excited to write about the texts we’re reading in class. And they’re excited every single day. This just makes me excited as well!!
I have always, always had at least a handful of students who are disengaged or just plain reluctant to respond to texts, but even the students who fit this profile are writing!
What’s the trick? It is really very simple… picture books that they love and response sheets that are interesting and meaningful! When this year began, I would share a story and then invite my students to “turn and talk” with an elbow buddy and the enthusiasm was incredible! I thought, “If my students are this excited to share their ideas about a story orally, why not on paper?!” So, I started creating response pages for each of the books I read. We’d begin the same way: read, turn and talk, then go-go-go and WRITE!!
When a colleague of mine stumbled across our language books with these pages she encouraged me to take them a step further and share with you!
I’ve kept these packages simple – they do not form the foundation of my literacy program, but rather are one resource I can draw upon to engage my students in meaningful, curriculum-related activities. There are no lessons included – you need to use these texts to fit the focus of your classroom at any given time. What I have included in each set are NO-PREP reading response sheets for a variety of comprehension strategies that can be accessed by all students in your classroom over the course of one week. Each package listing in my Teachers Pay Teachers store clearly outlines the strategies covered. They include:
- predicting
- questioning
- synthesizing
- demonstrating understanding
- making inferences/interpreting texts
- extending understanding
- responding to and evaluating texts
- point of view
You can grab a free set for The Recess Queen now to try these out in your own classroom! Don’t forget to leave me feedback! It helps me continue to create resources that you need and want!
Once my students have had plenty of practice responding to the books they’ve listened to in class, they’ll be ready to move on to independent reading responses. For now, I’m just loving that they love this so much!
If you enjoy using The Recess Queen Freebie with your students you may want to grab my Endless Bundle! You’ll get ALL my current and future reading response packages for a super-low price! Click the image for more information:
*****Find clickable links to ALL of the picture book resources in this series HERE!*****
If you are new to Teachers Pay Teachers (my all-time favorite site for teaching resources!), you can set up a free account here!
Find more great reading resources on this Pinterest board:
If you’ve found this post helpful or motivating, please share with your friends and colleagues!
