Book Response Letters

I just completed my fourth week of book response letters, and I wanted to post about how it has been going. I previously mentioned that I did not start the letters sooner because I originally found the idea of responding to my 50 students on a weekly basis daunting, but I found a system that made the process feasible. While it is still time consuming and a bit stressful at times to keep up with, I also find that it is one of my most enjoyable non-student contact activities. I love having this added level of insight into my students as readers.

Here are some quick thoughts on my ponderings as I am still new to letters:

*It is helpful to have a web page open to Amazon while reading/responding. I can quickly look up a book a student is talking about or answer questions they have, such as whether there is a sequel. I also double check information about books that I want to mention to them.

*Some students automatically wrote with the level of insights that I want to guide all students toward, while others still mainly write a summary. I have had discussions with the class about what the letters should be like. I can see that they will be on-going discussions to continue to nudge students in the right direction. After mentioning to students that I wanted them to be writing about what they think about as readers, including strategies they use, some students started to write about strategies in a generic way. For example, they listed out different strategies without connecting them to a book they are reading. As I have more experience with book response letters I will know how to introduce the concept better.

*I am planning on having some students start their own blogs fairly soon after the winter break, and I will have them write book reviews, rather than a book response letter. While these will not be exactly the same, it will still require students to process information about their books. They will still have a response from me, as well as the added possibility of peer feedback.