Making Reading Social: Encouraging Authentic Student Responses

Reposted article

I’ve been busy building a course on how to use a coach’s notebook. That’s left little time for writing. Fortunately, an article I wrote a few years ago is now free for all readers on Choice Literacy. You can read it here or below. Take care, -Matt

My family and I were driving to a local bookstore when my son said, “I took an AR quiz today.”

What?! I thought. I asked his teachers not to have him take Accelerated Reader quizzes. He doesn’t need to be motivated to read with external rewards such as points.

Fortunately, I took a few deep breaths, tried not to assume anything, and then asked him, “Why did you take the quiz?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “I just felt like it.” After a pause, he continued to share about the book he’d taken a quiz on and how he’d done on it (“80 percent!”), and then concluded that he was glad he didn’t have to take quizzes this year, because he reads a lot already.

After giving myself a mental high-five for taking a more balanced approach to this issue, my mind start to wonder why he had chosen to take the quiz. We were walking through the Barnes & Noble, and I noticed how some of the employees had posted reviews on little cards next to favorite books. It then hit me: My son wanted to respond to what he was reading.

Solitary and Social

Although reading seems like something we do in solitude, it is also a social experience. We read text to learn and for enjoyment, to understand something new as well as to better know ourselves. When we finish a book, and sometimes when we are not even finished, we have this desire to share what we are reading with others. Maybe it’s simply sharing a title we enjoyed with a friend. It can also be more formal, such as posting a review on Amazon or Goodreads. Reading can be a community-building experience in our classrooms as well, provided we get creative in developing authentic opportunities.

Technology can be a great fit for providing students with opportunities to respond. One of my favorite tools is Biblionasium. It is self-described as “the largest social book club for kids.” Students are able to post reviews and ratings of books. They can also discover new books to read, especially if Biblionasium is connected with a school’s Destiny account. In addition, educators can get data about students’ reading habits and choices to prepare for future title selections. Biblionasium is a less expensive and, in my opinion, better approach for reader response than other technologies.

If a teacher is searching for a less technology-centric option, consider a community reading journal/log. Take any type of notebook, either scaffolded with what to enter about the book (title, author, rating, review, who might want to read it, and so forth) or a blank notebook. Then place it in a prominent area of the classroom and explain to students that they can enter books they have read and would recommend to peers in this community log. Then, when students are perusing the classroom library not sure what to read next, they can look through the written responses in the classroom reading journal.

Reader response can also become part of a larger study around persuasive writing and public speaking. As an example, a team of teachers could develop a unit of study in which the performance task/summative assessment asks the students to create a podcast or a video book review for a title they want to recommend. Teachers could use backward design to describe the expected learning outcomes and then develop criteria for what a successful digital presentation should include. This performance task can be combined with a writing component, such as a podcast script, to better evaluate the level of understanding a student has regarding persuasive writing.

Our own original content can serve as exemplars for students as they consider how to respond creatively to their own reading, more so than a rubric or similar evaluation tool. Because of this, I created a book trailer in connection with our school’s Patricia Polacco author visit. In my example, I would use it as a “first draft” and ask the kids how I might improve upon my review, such as cutting out the “ums” and practicing more.

When we arrived home from the bookstore, I noticed a hardcover picture book on our kitchen counter. My son’s name was on the front cover. “You wrote this?” I asked him.

“Yes,” he replied. “Last year we used Story Jumper with the librarian to write a book, and she sent it in to be published. It arrived today at school.” This delivery was another reminder about the best way to respond to what we are reading: through writing for an authentic audience. It can be as simple as a reading log or as complex as a podcast production. What’s more important is that a student’s response to their reading be authentic and meaningful for everyone.