Reader's Notebook Responses

It has been so interesting to get to know my students more as readers through their reader's notebooks. It is especially fun to see the reasoning behind some of my returning students' reading behaviors/interests that they demonstrated last year. For the start of the year I used ideas from Nancie Atwell and Aimee Buckner. After modeling my own reading territories (inspired by Atwell) for my students, they wrote about their territories in their reader's notebook. Because I made a point of showing books that I read and enjoy from a range of personal difficulty levels, many of students reflections were aimed toward explaining about reading that is relatively easy or hard for them. While this is not quite like Atwell's territories, it was great information for me. On a different day, we discussed Buckner's "What I Know is True About Reading" concept. I was really pleased with how both of these turned out, and I highly recommend resources by both authors. It was helpful to see students' personal philosophies about reading.

Here are some of the student comments inspired by the prompts.

Reading Territories:

“I like to read about smart, witty characters usually now about my age or older. I also like it better when the main character is the narrator, not just a voice who does not exist. I like to be able to get inside the characters’ heads (or head) and read about their emotions and thoughts.”

“I really like to read about adventures and action, not like some books where its just girls liking boys, or growing up problems. I live through that stuff every day. I don’t want to read about it. I want to read about things I’ve never seen before, places I’ve never been to.”

“Some books can be hard for me if they have more than one narrator.”

“I like reading books where the main characters are trying to accomplish something.”

“It’s hard for me to read when there is a lot of noise. I like to read when it’s quiet.”

“Something that I am reading is Eclipse, and it is a little bit hard. It helps to have a lot of friends that have read them.”

What I Know is True About Reading:

“Sometimes when I read a book that’s really well-written, I can almost believe (even if it’s fantasy or a faire tale) that that stuff is actually happening in the real world. I just can’t see it.”

“When I read a well-written book, usually I can see the story going on in my head, so I don’t have to focus so much on reading the words. I see it like a movie in my head. The details have to be well-explained though.”

“If you enjoy a book, you can’t stop reading.”

“It helps my spelling.”

“Books can teach you how to be a better writer.”

“I love books that I can relate to. If I have nothing in common with the book or the character, chances are I’m not going to like it.”

“You can read different difficulty levels.”