Reading Calendars

If you haven't ever been a part of the #titletalk conversation that happens the last Sunday of every month over on Twitter, hosted by Donalyn Miller and Colby Sharp, then you are missing out on some of the best FREE professional development you can ever receive.  There is so much shared and learned in that one hour - I learn more in that hour than I usually ever learn at staff meetings or PD given by the district.

With that being said, this past week's #titletalk conversation was on the topic of reading goals and how we set goals with our students (you can go here for the archive).  During my Christmas break, I toyed with the idea of trying reading calendars with my students to plan out their reading for the month in conjunction with a monthly goal.  I didn't have anything more in mind than giving my students a copy of a calendar for the month and have them do some simple planning for their reading.  I thought the visual would be helpful for many of my kiddos.  I have several students who start more books than they finish or take a long time to read one book.  There are many factors involved for these particular students and where they are at with their reading.  So I thought that making a reading calendar might be helpful for these kids, and why couldn't it be helpful for the rest?

When I modeled planning my reading for this month I actually really liked it for myself.  I always have a mental plan - but planning out my reading and seeing a visual really stood out for me.  I can now picture my reading calendar, my plan, and I think about it daily. And I immediately heard positive feedback from my students. Comments such as, "I really like this idea." "I think this is really going to help me."

A student sample.

So I plan on making regular updates here on my blog to share how reading calendars are going for my students as well as for myself.  To the left here are a couple of snapshots of reading calendars from two of my students. 

Another student sample.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maddie Witter has a book out now:

 

that I plan to read that has some ideas about reading calendars.