Authentic Assessment ESL: Reading Response Logs

Question: How can teachers encourage a dialogue with individual students about their reading?

Answer/Quote: “Reading response logs are notebooks in which students record their responses to what they read, and teachers reply to those responses…. Teachers who use reading-response logs generally encourage students to react personally to what they read. In a sense, response logs become dialogues between students and teachers about books the students are reading.” P. 196.

Quote: “Some students may find it difficult to react personally to a text and instead will simply summarize what they have been reading.” Teachers should encourage students to react personally to what they are reading.” P. 196-197.

Quote: “Response logs provide teachers with information about how students are synthesizing and interpreting information from their reading. “ p. 197.

Quote: “Sometimes students will write about topics that they are hesitant to discuss in front of the class. In addition, teachers can use the logs to monitor and aid students’ writing development. In short, both reading and writing performance can be enhanced and assessed with reading-response logs.” P. 197.

Quote: “Teachers who use reading-response logs in their classrooms often collect them from students on a rotating basis.” P. 197.

Comment: Reading Response Logs could be used as a prelude to my ten-minute essays. RayS.

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.