We’ve now (almost) made it through the first quarter, and are (basically) one-fourth of the way through the school year. The students have turned in their first quarter reading records and used this document to complete a reflection that (hopefully) helped them process the information.
One of the main goals of all of the reading we do this year—other than developing skills to comprehend, analyze, and evaluate nonfiction, fiction, and poetry texts—is to develop life-long, passionate readers. Passionate readers, who continue to read for the rest of their lives, know themselves as readers: they know the authors they prefer, they know what genres they enjoy, they know the length and level of writing they can work with, and they know how long they can work with a book before they need to abandon the book and move on to something else. These aren’t necessary “skills” that I can teach the individual students, but these are discoveries the students can make for themselves, as they track their reading and process each quarter, looking for trends and information that can inform their future decisions. That is why we read lots of different types of books, and track our reading using the quarterly reading records, and reflect upon our reading.
So, here are some things that I noticed, when looking at all of the different student reported results from the reflection. *NOTE: this quarter, students were asked to read six books: three different nonfiction (one “informational” text, one “instructional” text, one autobiography/biography/memoir), one fiction of any subgenre, and one poetry of any type.
- Students read a total of 730 books this quarter.
- 3rd period read 205 total books, for an average per student of 7.59.
- 4th period read 162 total books, for an average per student of 7.
- 5th period read 179 total books, for an average per student of 7.78.
- 6th period read 184 total books, for an average per student of 6.81.
- The student that read the most books, read 22 books this quarter.
- 62 students chose fiction as their favorite genre this quarter
- 31 students chose nonfiction as their favorite genre this quarter
- 8 students chose poetry as their favorite genre this quarter
- It’s great to see a lot of diversity in the choices for favorite books, but we did have two books chosen by two people: Slam by Walter Dean Myers and Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. No other books were selected multiple times as favorites.
- The authors that had their books chosen the most, for favorite book, were: Rick Riordan and Margaret Peterson Haddix.
Students were also asked, “What did you learn about yourself as a reader, this quarter?” Here are some interesting responses. *NOTE: No corrections made to student writing.
- I learned that i enjoy fiction and poetry books alot more than nonfiction, which caused me to read fiction and poerty alot quicker than it took me to read nonfiction.
- I still like mythology and Rick Riordan
- I learned that I like reading about Engineering, and that nonfiction isn't as bad as I thought it was.
- That reading can and is fun so im going to read more.
- I learned that i hate non-fiction and that i'd prefer a world of magic and mystery over the rea world (Fantasy > Non-fiction).
- I like sports books the best
- I learned that just because I like Fiction, probaly more than anyother gerne, I can still enjoy books of genres, like nonfiction. This quarter also chanellenged me to read more genres.
- I learned that i can read any book i want to if i put myself upto the challenge.
- i learned that i am not as fast of a read that i thought iwas and if you speed through a book at the end you wont understand what happend in it
- That I need to read more and not abandon as many books this quarter.
- I like books about Tornadoes, Titanic and the Holocaust because I guess they're just really interesting to me . But, if a book is pretty lengthy I'll probably lose interest soon . I like having a short read , sometimes . Also , I like a challenge so if a book has a high reading level I'll more than likely try to read it
- I like reading books about science and historical things , whether it be non-fiction or fiction .
- I learned that I love reading books about music or musicians or about someones life , in their own words .
- i learned that i really like science fiction books. i mean i argued with my sister that i didnt and it turns out she was right.
- I learned that I actually like to read poetry and nonfiction a lot more than I thought I did.
- I learned that I am very interested in instructional non-fiction and dislike informational non-fictions. I also learned I am not likely to stay interested in a very lengthy book for very long.
- I learned that I am attracted to fictional books about magic and other unrealistic things. I love characters with strong wills (expecially if they are girls). I hate nonfiction books, because I believe that history is really deppressing.
- I need to actually take the time to read the books instead of rushing through them
- Before, I wasn't really sure what genre I enjoyed reading. But after having to read different types of books, I realized that I lean towards fictional books, especially mysteries, much more than I do nonfiction. But I also like reading some nonfiction, but only informational books about the brain.
- That it's not so bad to just sit down & read for 30 minutes. 30 minutes isn't going to kill you, you'll never get better if you never try. ( :
- I didn't know that i liked Realistic Fiction so well until i realized that after i finished the reading requirements that, that was all i was reading.
- I learned about myself this quarter, that I can read longer books. They just have to be in my intrest, and Side Effects was! I've always been pressured into books I had no interest in, and I will be honest... I just "read them", cause youre not gonna read something you don't wanna read, right? The only time I'll read something I don't want to, is when it's for like a HUGE grade! Haha!
- I learned that I really enjoy memoirs. I think if I hadn't been required to read nonfiction books, I never would have found this out.
- That I should've tried new genres earlier. Take non-fiction for example: as I mentioned earlier, I've never really liked non-fiction, so it was - all at the same time - a great way and an awful way to start of the year when you made one of the requirements reading 3 non-fiction in a quarter. I knew I could READ the books, that wasn't my problem, it was LIKING them that was it. As I started reading, I realized I actually enjoy non-fiction and am going to read more of it.
- I learned that while I still enjoy fiction a lot, I also like biographies, because they are more touching, as well as informational.
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