Ah, the humble reading record. A reliable fixture of the primary school classroom and the building blocks of an institution that’s loved by parents and teachers alike. Or is it?
Some parents are happy to provide a page-long essay describing their child’s nightly reading in minute detail. Others suddenly realise that it is 9pm Sunday evening and there are now five days of comments to fill in.
Here are two alternative ways to keep a record of children’s reading – download PDFs straight from the top of this page.
Bookmark
Use a simple bookmark with spaces for a parent to add their initials each time they hear a child read over the week.
This gives the teacher a handy overview of reading. It also means there is no lengthy writing for busy parents or those who struggle to record a comment.
Bookshelf
Download our sheet featuring a drawing of a bookshelf. We’ve left the spines blank for children to record the names of the books they’ve read.
Is a reading record useful?
Some teachers values the window a reading record offers into a child’s wider reading. Others wince at the sight of 22 books awaiting comment (plus, naturally, another six to chase up and a further two that haven’t been seen for several weeks).
At its best, a reading record can be a useful record of a child’s reading. It can be a reliable means of communication between home and school. But the traditional model can bring challenges.
For the youngest children, where the emphasis is on parents to fill them in, there are two issues. Firstly, for some parents, completing the reading diary becomes a badge of honour.
Secondly, whether because of issues with their own literacy or trouble finding the time, some parents face a genuine struggle with the task.
This means that the conversations between school and home aren’t about the positives of reading or the joy of books. Instead, they concern the reading record itself and why it isn’t up-to-date.
Children who are mature enough to complete their own reading record can come to see it as punishment. We extol the virtues of reading to children not just because of the educational benefits, but because reading is a wonderful, pleasurable way to spend their time.
Then we ask them to complete a piece of writing about it. We don’t follow most other pleasurable leisure activities – television, computer games, sports or after-school clubs, for example – with a piece of writing.
Following reading with writing reinforces the message that this is school business. We should instead help pupils to see that reading is something valuable and enjoyable in its own right.
Advice for using reading records
My best advice when thinking about the use of a reading record is the same as it is for any other activity linked to reading, whether it is book corners, displays, dressing up events, or reading competitions. I would suggest teachers always ask two questions:
- Is this going to make anyone better at reading?
- Is this likely to help anyone develop a more positive attitude to reading?
If the answer is anything less than a resounding ‘yes’, then we should give serious thought as to whether it is worth us expending our valuable time and energy.
Like every tool we have at our disposal in the classroom, a reading record is what we make of it. Used well, it can be wonderful. Used without thought, it becomes another thing to do, hoovering up valuable teacher time.
And like everything we do in school, we have the power to change this if we wish.
Alternative reading record ideas
On my travels to visit wonderful reading schools across the UK, I encounter more and more places that, conscious of these challenges, have moved away from keeping reading diaries in their traditional form.
Here are some of the best alternatives I’ve discovered.
1 | Create a reading tree
Cover a display board with a bare tree, ready for children to cover it in leaves. This can function as an effective whole-class reading record. Each time a child completes a book, they add a leaf with their name and the book, building into a wonderful display.
Adding a leaf to the tree can be a motivating reason to read. For younger children, parents can fill out a leaf when they hear their child read at home (in the same way as they would fill out a traditional reading diary).
And at the end of the year, dismantle the display and reunite children with the leaves detailing all of the books they’ve read.
This can be an incredibly enjoyable session, with children gasping aloud at how much they’ve achieved and excitedly recalling their favourites.
2 | Provide real reading journals
We refer to many reading records or diaries as journals, but how many actually are reading journals? How many children have a space to respond in the way they want to the books they read, without having a set format or structure to follow?
Rather than a reading diary that only has space for writing, some schools are moving to a model where there is room for pictures, diagrams, cuttings, as well as the written word. It’s somewhere for them to record their personal reading lives.
Explain to children that while you still want them to date each entry, you really want to know more about their reading choices. Encourage them to be creative. You could give them a list of ideas like this that would be suitable for a reading diary:
- Write a blurb about what your book is about. Sell it to me – make me want to read it!
- Draw a picture of a character and tell me about them.
- Have you found any difficult or interesting words? Write them down and tell me what they mean. Try putting them into sentences of your own.
- Write a short summary of what’s happened in the book so far. What should I know?
- What’s good about the book you’re reading? What don’t you like so much?
- If you were the author, how would you change the story?
- When you’ve finished, write a review of the book. Tell me your honest opinion!
If you want to be a little more prescriptive in your approach, set specific tasks each week, similar to the ones above. This might work better with some of your children who worry if things are left too much to personal choice.
When you collect the diaries, read through them and turn the work into an ongoing conversation. If a child has written about a character or expressed a view about a storyline, write back to them.
Make observations and show interest. Remember: if you can’t be bothered to do this, then why should they?
Thanks to Samantha Pope for these journal ideas. Download a free reading journal booklet here.
3 | Make time to talk about books
One of the best ways of building a genuine reading culture is to allow children to talk about their reading. Building in regular time for children to share with each other the books they have (and perhaps haven’t) enjoyed can create a buzz about books and help children to develop the literary language that is so useful as they move through school.
4 | Take reading selfies
A quick photo is taken of the child holding up the book they’ve finished. This is saved in the class’s shared area, building into a gallery of each child’s reading that year.
Photos of favourite books can be shared in an electronic photo frame, giving a quick way of making class recommendations.
5 | Keep an online record
A quick search online will throw up a plethora of commercial software packages, but setting up a template on Word or Google Docs and hosting it on the class shared area is quick and easy (again, search online for handy how-to tutorials), and it’s free.
James Clements is an independent English adviser.
