Building Better Reading Responses is a scaffolded approach to help your students build and write better reading responses by using specific reading response goals to improve their comprehension and evidence in constructed responses. I created this resource based on the strategies I use in my own class to help my students build better reading response answers. In my class, each student has a reading response journal (just a regular, three-hole notebook). In this journal they keep all their notes on the goals/criteria, write their reader responses, and keep track of all assessments. They either write their notes right onto the pages, or glue in handouts. This resource is the perfect companion to my Building Better Writing Responses resource and my Building Better Math Responses. These strategies can be used with any text (fiction, informative, or poetry) and with any questions you choose. I use questions from my Question Fan Resource. This resource contains 5 main sections: - A set of Reading Response Goals – These are the goals I use in my own class. These goals can be used in two different ways: 1) As a clip chart for students’ individual goals. Students move along the goals at their own pace, moving their clip or clothespin as they master a goal, or 2) The goals can be used to build a cumulative set of success criteria. One goal/criteria is taught at a time. When the class has mastered the particular goal, another goal is then added. This chart is also color-coded, showing the colors students will use when color coding their own answers. There is also a self-reflection sheet for students to complete after they feel they have mastered a goal. I have provided this resource in two different forms: 1) Goals on a blackboard background to match the Writing Goals I have made; or 2) Goals on a white background for an ink-friendly print. - Assessment Options – There are a few different options for assessment provided. There is a self, peer, and teacher success criteria checklist for a quick formative assessment, as well as a full rubric for more formal, or summative assessment. - Posters and Bookmarks – I have made a colorful poster using the acronym “BICEPS” to help students remember the criteria they must include in their answers. The poster comes in color for classroom display, as well as in black and white for easy printing. Students can color their own posters and keep a copy in their own reading response journals. I have also reduced the size of the poster to create bookmarks for students to keep in their reading books to remind them of the success criteria when writing their own responses. - Scaffolded Reading Response Sheets – In my class, when we are adding a new goal/criteria, we write about it in our reading response notebooks. For each goal in the clip chart there is a “Good Reader” note with the learning goal, an explanation of why we include the particular goal, and a personal reflection prompt. For each goal there is also a reading response answer sheet that includes the criteria studied – building from using one goal, to using all eight goals in one answer. - Reading Response Activities and Printable Worksheets – I have also included a section containing different printable worksheets for students to use when writing reading response answers. These particular sheets make a great display of student work, get your students working together with a partner or a small group to improve answers, and are perfect to send home after assessment to help inform the parents about what their children are working on, or put in students’ portfolios for reflection at the end of a term or year. There is a large focus on student accountability on these printables – asking students to reflect on their answers, improve their answers, identify their strengths and areas of need, and set goals. I have bundled all three of my Building Better Responses resources. You can view the bundle by clicking HERE. *** This resource is also included in my HUGE 4th - 6th Grade Essentials Bundle containing 20 of my best classroom resources. *********************************************************************************************************** Follow me on Instagram or Facebook to see more of my classroom ideas!