By Elisabeth Walker6th Grade Language

ArtsAllendale, NJ

Your Reading Life:Tracking Reading

Progress in 6th Grade

Students will be able to: Track their reading progress

throughout the year Assess their reading stamina

throughout the year Assess their genre preferences

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.6.10: By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 6–8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

Project Description and Timeline

6th grade language arts students keep a reading log that looks like a 10-month calendar for the duration of the school year. On this reading log, students record the books they have read as well as how many pages they read each night. The log is collected monthly, and students are graded using a simple checklist.

The Excel project is designed as a culminating activity to show students how much they accomplished in their reading lives over the course of their 6th grade year. Using the spreadsheets, they will be able to 1) track their reading stamina over each month, and 2) determine their preferences for different genres.

Lesson Plan: Introduction to the Reading Log

Essential Question: How do readers keep track of their reading so that they can reflect on and adjust their literary decisions?Connection: Watch Reading Rainbow auto-tune remix to show students the importance of reading. Show students goals of Launch unitTeaching: Baseball players keep careful, detailed statistics of how they are doing. Hardworking readers do the same thing by keeping a reading log. Keeping statistics of our reading helps us monitor and keep track of how we’re doing! Each student will receive a 10-month reading calendar, where they will record the number of pages they read each day, both in school and at home. I have modeled my reading for the month of August so that you have a frame of reference. We will use this reading log as a tool for conferences with me as well as with partners. Each time you complete a book, circle it. It will be so cool to see how many books you have read by the end of the year! Note: I will check the log periodically throughout the year for a grade (using a checklist)Active Engagement: What do you notice about the kind of reading I did in August? Turn and talk with the person sitting next to you.Independent Practice: Set up reading log for September; read independently

Student Example: Pages Read Throughout the

Year

Student Example: Genres Read Throughout the

Year

Implementing the Excel Spreadsheet

On my school website, I will post a link to a sample version of the Excel spreadsheet. Students will be able to open the file and save it to their student server at school. Using the reading log that they have kept all year, students will begin to fill in the cells for how many books and pages they read each month. The formulas will calculate totals and averages for them.

After students have added their data to the two spreadsheets, they will be able to track their reading stamina over the course of the school year and they will be able to determine which genres they prefer. They might get some ideas of what types of books they might want to try over the summer as well. I will provide students assistance with this as they input their data.

Evaluation

As this is an end-of-year project, there is not an evaluation involved. Rather, students will be able to self-assess their reading over the course of 6th grade. They will also be able to print their spreadsheets and graphs as a memento of their 6th grade reading life.

Brainy Bits

Multiple Intelligences Interpersonal: This project will appeal to the interpersonal

learner because it will allow the student to be introspective and reflect on his or her own personal goals. It is a very independent activity, and this learner is very independent.

Logical/ Mathematical: Calculating the pages and books read each month will appeal to this learner. These learners also like analyzing patterns and relationships, and this activity will allow them to do that with their own reading.

Mind Styles Concrete sequential: The step-by-step instructions that I will

provide will help these learners. They will also do well because the spreadsheet is organized and formulas have been implemented for them.

Concrete random: These students will do well when they have to analyze the progress they made throughout the year.

Abstract sequential: Because this project is independent and reflective, this type of student will do well.

CITATIONS

Lesson Plan Model: Teachers College Reading and Writing Workshop

Background Design: faidatemania.pianetadonna.it

Multiple Intelligences: http://www.tecweb.org/styles/gardner.html

Mind Styles: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Gregorc