Authentic Assessment ESL: Reading Logs

Question: How can teachers keep track of what ESL—and native English students—have read?

Answer/Quote: “Reading Logs. Students can also benefit by keeping an ongoing record of the different types of material they are reading….. In a reading log, students record the author and title of the different stories and books they have read, noting the date they completed the text. Teachers review the logs periodically, noting the types of materials and genres that the students are reading as well as the number of books…. …they ask the students to write a short annotation for each item read.” P. 196.

Quote: “If teachers are working with students from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds, the students should be encouraged to expand the categories listed in the logs to include newspaper and magazine articles, letters, and other types of texts that might be common in some of the students’ homes….” P. 196.

Title: “Assessing the Literacy Development of Second-Language Students: A Focus on Authentic Assessment.” Georgia Earnest Garcia, pp. 180-205.  In Kids Come in All Languages: Reading Instruction for ESL Students. Eds. K Spangensberg-Urgschat and R Pritchard. Newark, DE: IRA. 1994.