Weekly Reading Response Letters: Part 1

One of the components of my reading class is a weekly reading response letter.  Each week, I ask my friends to write me a letter about their reading.  This is one of the more important grades I take, but more importantly they really provide great insight as to how my friends are thinking.  I can tell right away if there is just a lot of surface level thinking or if they are thinking deeper.  They know I'm looking to see how they apply what we learn in class to their reading.

What they aren't allowed to do in their letter is give a detailed summary of the book and simply say, "I did/didn't like it."  I tell them that I don't need them for that.  I could get a summary by Googling it or reading the back cover.  What I can't get without them is how and what they think about the book.  Only they can tell me their thinking.

Now, I would like to say that they instantly get it, and I get great letters right off the bat.  If only!  Getting them to write about their thinking of the book and not just about the book takes a lot of modeling.  Due to some new initiatives in our school, I'm just getting to the letters in my reading instruction.  We've done a lot of work on how reading is thinking and how it helps us make meaning and enjoy what we read.  This week, I've begun modeling the reading response letters they will begin doing.  I thought I would share one with you the letter I wrote yesterday and a second one tomorrow.

Here's the one I wrote yesterday.  Please keep in mind, I wrote it fairly quickly on my prep period.  I probably wouldn't use the word friends as much if I had time to revise it.

I put up the letter and read it to the class.  Then, we discuss basics.  Did I use friendly letter format?  Let's review the parts.  Those are what the yellow Post-Its note. We note how it is written in paragraphS.  I don't know about your students, but mine can be Kings and Queens of the One Giant Paragraph!   Then, I read the letter again asking my friends to think about how the letter shows my thinking as a reader.  This is where the pink Post-Its come in.

The letter has to begin by telling the title and author.  This should be followed by a BRIEF summary.  Remember, if my goal was to get a summary of the book, I wouldn't need my friends.  I'm clear to then that this summary is no longer than 4 sentences tops, and is just to give me a feel for what the book is about. 

We then go on to find how the letter shows thinking.  I chose to focus on making a connection, asking a question, and what my mental images were.  They have a section in their notebook labeled "Thinking Stems."  It has a huge variety of areas/topics they could focus on in their letter.   What I need them to do is understand that they have to show how those things shaped their thinking. 

As I said, it's not easy and that's why I spend a few days modeling different types of response letters.  In this letter, I wrote it as if I had finished the book, and I addressed a few different thinking stem thoughts.  Tomorrow, I will share with you the letter I wrote today.  That letter was written as if I was only half-way through the book, and I chose to focus on just one thinking stem: character traits.  It's important to model letters for students who are at different points in their books.  In a few weeks, I will also model a response for non-fiction texts, but for now we start out with fiction.

There was a time I didn't spend as much time on modeling the letters, and what I got wasn't good.  I found that devoting a little more time on what the letters should be in the beginning really pays off.  If you are doing something different with your reading response letters, please comment and let us know.  I'm always looking for ways to improve mine.  :-)

And, as always, thanks for stopping by!

You can find part two Weekly Reading Letters by clicking HERE.