An Apple For The Teacher: The Best Ideas for 5-Minute Reading Responses

I love being able to conference with my students during their independent reading time, but, as you know limited time makes it impossible to meet with each student every day. Here are a few ideas ways for your students to respond to their reading that will allow you to peek into their thinking and comprehension when time is short.

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Reading Status Updates

Many students are either on social media, or know all about social media and status updates. Put that to good use with a reading status update. I like to have my students post on their Class Dojo, but you could use SeeSaw, Google Classroom, or even have them go old school with paper and pencil versions posted on the board.

Have students give a quick 2-3 sentence update on what they read that day. You might want to give them prompts to get them started such as:

What are you thinking about our wondering about your book right now?
What predictions can you make?
How has your character changed?
How does the setting effect your story?

3-2-1

This activity has students give responses using the 3-2-1 format. Have them list:

For Fiction:

3 things that happened in the story.
2 new words they learned or 2 quotes they found interesting.
1 thing they are wondering about.

For Non Fiction:

3 words that were new or interesting to me.
2 facts I learned.
1 thing I am curious about or want to learn more about.

Somebody Wanted, But, So, Then

This strategy is a great way to help your students summarize what they read.

The somebody answers - Who is the main character?

The wanted answers - What does the main character want?

The but answers - What is the problem?

The so answers - How did the main character solve the problem?

The then answers - What was the resolution, or how did the story end?

You can grab a free graphic organizer for the Somebody Wanted But So Then strategy here.

Dear Diary,

Have students imagine that they are one of the characters in the story they are reading. Then, have them choose an event in the story that involves that character. Have them write a diary or journal entry about the event from their point of view. Remind them to write in first person and include their emotions, actions, and opinions about what happened.

This Reminds Me Of...

Have students make connections to what they are reading. Give them the following prompts:

When I read this part: (students will write a part from the text).

I was reminded of: (students will make a connection to their own experiences or another book they have read).

Quote Collector

Have students keep track of quotes they find as they read. You might offer prompts such as:

Quotes that tell opinions or feelings
Quotes that give facts or information
Quotes that make me wonder about things

Post-It Note Responses

Have students keep a stack of post-it notes close by as they read. When they have a question, or find an interesting part, they should respond on the post-it. When you conference with them, you can have them share their post-it notes with you.

Read and Respond Menus

Giving students a choice in their reading response is a great way to add motivation, and helps when they are all at different spots in their books (some are just starting a new book while others are smack in the middle), or if they are reading different genres.

That's why I created Read and Respond forms for my students. Each set contains 5 different forms (3 fiction and 2 non fiction) that can be completed with any book. Each form has 8 - 13 different prompts for your students to choose from.