30 Book Challenge / Readers Workshop Journal

Well, We have successfully made it through one full week of school! I began among other things my 30 Book Challenge  and Readers Workshop Journals.

In order to become a better reader, you have to read, read and read! I read the book, The Book Whisperer, by Donalyn Miller  a couple of years ago and absolutely loved her philosophies. 

  She instigated a reading program in her classroom of sixth graders, which I liked and modified her program to fit my third graders and challenge them. Like a lot of teachers, I previously had the students reading at home and bringing in a signed reading log, however even with what I was implementing in class I didn’t see much improvement in fluency/comprehension. I decided to completely revamp my Reading program. I created time within my schedule where the students could read daily for 20-30 minutes. 

The first year I required 25 books of different genres to be read within the year. The challenge was easily met so the next year I increased it to 28 books. Again the challenge was met. This year I have increased the number of books to 30 and added an Accelerated Reading test to them as well.

Here is how the program works. I have a recording sheet for each student. Each of the recording sheets have the genres and the number of books the students are required to read within that genre. This is all done in class, not at home.

The second part of this program is a writing component, which is called the Reader’s Workshop Journal, which again is a variation of Donalyn Millers program. Each student has a spiral notebook, and weekly they are required to write me a letter regarding what they are reading. I like the letter writing format, because it not only reinforces those letter writing skills, but allows me to write them back in letter format, which I do weekly.

          The letter consists of what they are reading at the moment. They may be just finishing a book, or in the middle of a book or just a few pages in, I don’t want a book summary, that’s easy, I want their feelings about what they are reading. 

         I want to know about the characters, do they relate to the characters, is there a conflict in the story, how do you feel about what you are reading, are you happy, sad, then tell me why?

This is an entry from one of my students.
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I have used this system for the past few years and it has been very successful in increasing both comprehension and fluency. Check it out and see what you think!