Steven has been required to read daily since he started school. Sometimes he gets away with not doing it on weekends, and he usually doesn’t do it on holidays. Some things just aren’t worth an argument.
This year we decided that as long as he reads for at least 30 minutes each “school day”, he won’t have to read other days. Luckily over the last few years he has finally started finding books he actually wants to read. But he tends to only read certain types of books (suspense, horror, mystery and Pokemon mangas), so this year I want him to try and diversify his reading list.
To that end, I put together a reading duo-tang for him to use throughout the year. In the front is this Visual Reading Log I found free on Teachers Pay Teachers. It’s got blocks that look like stacks of books that he can write all the titles he’s read in, and they’re separated into a few different genres so he’ll hopefully be encouraged to try something new. I printed it on cardstock to make it a bit more durable.
I also put together a suggested reading list using the genres on that sheet, so he can’t possibly say “I can’t find anything to read”. You can download a pdf file of my list here. It’s 5 pages long, in 2 columns, and it looks best if you print on both sides of the page. I really meant for it to only be one or two pages long, but I kind of couldn’t stop myself once I started. I’ve always loved books and there are so many amazing-looking new books and so many old favourites on that list. I want to read them all! I guess I’ll start by reading whatever Steven picks out.
I purposely made the list only a list of titles and authors. I originally thought I would put a sentence or two about each book, but I decided I want him to have to look them up. That way he’ll be on websites with books, learning how to use them, and something not on the list might grab his attention.
After the suggested reading list, there is a “Books I’ve Read This Year” worksheet. For now, I printed out the two sheets provided to rate books, and I’ll print more as needed for him to fill out as he completes books. It’s just a quick little one sentence review with a star rating that he will be able to refer back to at the end of the year when I give him the “Year in Review” page that is included with this resource.
After that is a big list of options for book “report” activities. I’ve told Steven that he needs to complete at least one “big book report”, for which I plan on using this book report package and one “The Book vs. The Movie” project at some point this year. For every other book, he can choose to do any activity that will show his reading comprehension. I’ve printed out a couple of choice boards (here and here) to give him ideas, but I told him he can discuss any other ideas he has with me. Maybe he’ll get a really cool idea from one of his books.
I’ve added all the resources mentioned here to the grade 6 resource page. There are a few others there too that look cool but that I didn’t end up adding to the duo-tang.
That’s all for now. Stay safe!
