Highlight from a Reading Log

One of the homework tasks I require of my 4th grade students is 15 minutes of independent or shared reading, followed by a comment in their Reading Log. They have a choice of the 11 response starters below and each week they must choose 4 different starters.

A.  The main idea of what I read was ... B.  My favourite part was ___________________. I like this part because ... C.  My favourite sentence was _______________. I like this sentence because ... D.  This reminds me of ... E.  I did not like the part when ______________. I did not like this part because ... F.  A question I have is ____________________? I think the answer to my question is ... G.  I wonder why _________________(character’s name) said or did ... H.  I love the way the author ________________. I like this because ... I.   What I think will happen next is ... J.  I agree (or disagree) with _________________ _______________, because ... K.  I didn’t understand the part when ...

Yesterday I was busy reviewing the Reading Logs when I came across this gem:

"I love the way the author make new words for me. I like this because if I know alot of new words and how to spell them I would get my spelling test right every Thursday or I could be smarter than Miss Karen."

You can't help loving this student's thinking! This student is stretching himself with fairly advanced Chapter Books, and comments like this help me know he's thinking about what he's reading. Awesome. I love it when my kids use the strategies I teach them to take their own learning to the next level.