On Reading Logs

In August 2019, I joined a third-grade team with two veteran teachers. Both of them had taught upper elementary and had a ton more experience than me. Still, I came with way too many ideas and plans, which they gracefully entertained. In one of our planning meetings, I brought up a suggestion from many teachers around the world of replacing the book for the first read-aloud (a story for another post, maybe), and they agreed. I was following a trend without thinking critically about it, and the result was a less than ideal experience for our students.

This year, when I revisited the idea of reading logs, I remembered that meeting. I told myself I wouldn’t blindly follow the same path without considering all angles. My mind had already collected many reasons to despise reading logs, and the first year I spent in upper elementary, I stood by each of them. I was the stubborn colleague in every conversation I had with teachers who supported reading logs; I’m sure Ms. Morales would remember.

“Reading logs kill the joy of reading. They have no place in my classroom.” I felt very strongly about that.

My thoughts weren’t unfounded. Besides the many articles I read claiming the harm they caused, I saw children asking parents to set a timer so that they could hit the 20-min mark and then collecting mom or dad’s signature to “complete their homework.” One child even stopped halfway through a chapter, wrote the time and pages read, and put the book away; he said, “I don’t have to read more; I already read one more line than yesterday.”

Reading logs do no good. I still believed that when I started teaching 4th-graders this August. I told myself I would find a “more meaningful way” to help students keep track of the books they read. I spent the first month watching them during independent reading, assessing them, and complimenting whatever effort they made. Then, I looked at the data I collected and saw the reality of my class.

I had a group of readers who still didn’t know how to choose “Just Right” books. Some of them kept abandoning books and could not identify the kinds of books they wanted to read. A few of them avoided “big books” because they thought that a book with too many pages would take too long to read. That’s when it hit me; these children needed to see their reading, and to do that, they needed to log their reading. Wait… Reading logs?

I wiped off everything I believed about reading logs and started from scratch. A reading log is just a tool; maybe the problem isn’t the tool but how it’s used. After some thinking and considering the idea of using reading logs with my class, I wrote this list:

• Find samples of reading logs and study them with readers.
• Define the purpose of reading logs with students: we’ll gather data to study after a certain period.
• Don’t make it mandatory at first—obligation kills motivation.
• Ask to see their logs at the start of each reading conference. Let them see you care.
• Use the log to help them set goals.

Without overthinking it, I gave reading logs a second chance and, so far, they’ve proved me wrong. I can’t say all my students keep them, but a significant number of readers do. When I confer with those students who continue to be motivated to track their reading, we can see patterns. They notice consistencies and changes in stamina and that is already a huge win. Many students log their reading over weekends or holidays, some even record whether they read in the car or at the store.

There are also those students who lose their logs or forget to write entries, and so far, my response has been, “I’m sorry you’ve lost that information. I wish we could see your growth.” There are those few who see friends with their log and ask me for a new one. I’m not expecting them to suddenly feel a desire to [consistently] record their reading, but I hope to help them see why it matters.

My goal for these first few weeks was to experiment with the reading logs and see how willing students were to make them part of their reading routine, and so far, I am happy with the results. January will come with new goals and new expectations. We’ll see how it goes.

It’s still early to say Reading Logs have been successful and made a difference in my students’ reading; what I can say is that I’m glad I wasn’t so stubborn this time around.