5 Easy Responding to Reading Ideas!

Cover Responding to Reading

As a primary teacher one of my favorite classroom activities is Responding to Reading! It is so important to let students express their thoughts and ideas about what you are reading and what they are reading! Read on for 5 Responding to Reading Ideas!

Responding to Reading Idea #1

Let them talk!

The easiest and my favorite responding to reading idea is to let your students talk! The procedure in my classroom is if the book is facing me, we are listening intently. If the book is facing you (the students), you can make a quick comment to your partner or someone sitting close to you. Sometimes I give my students a prompt of things to notice or to talk about, and sometimes I leave it open ended! Here are a few prompt ideas:

What is your favorite part?

Who is your favorite character?

What is the setting?

Who are the characters?

What is the problem in the story?

How do the characters solve the problem in the story?

How would you solve the problem in the story?

It’s always a good idea to give your students the prompt before you start reading the story, or before they start reading, so they have it in mind.

Reading Response Idea #2

Let them draw or doodle!

Another super simple idea for getting your students responding to reading is to let them draw or doodle while reading. Again, you can have a specific drawing idea in mind, or you can keep it open ended. To help your students and make it more effective, have your students put the book title at the top of their page, and they need to be able to explain what and why they drew what they drew. This also helps to ensure that they stay on task.

Responding to Reading Idea #3

Le them do a Video or Audio Response!

This idea is probably most effective if you have one to one devices, but you can make it work for homework or if your students have to share. Most of my darling cherubs are aspiring YouTube stars, so they LOVE this way to respond. When we do a digital reponse, I do give them a specific prompt of something I want them to talk about. We have a learning managment system, so my kiddos can do a quick video (or audio) response right in there.

Another way to have your students do a digital response is to have them use Padlet (I am not affiliated, I just like using their platform). It is free for so many “padlets”. Your kiddos can do an audio or video response using Padlet! Here is a great video for how to use Padlet from Youtube if you are interested (this guy is really good. He does a lot of tech tutorial videos. I don’t know him either, I just like his videos!)

Flipgrid (not affiliated with Flipgrid either) is another way that your students can do digital responses. I have to be honest, I have not used it, but I know that a lot of teachers really like it. There are some great tutorials for how to use it on YouTube if you want more information (same guy from above)!

Responding to Reading Idea #4

Reading Response Journals or Formal Reading Responses.

There are so many ways to do formal reading responses. You could have your students make a new book cover, you could have them do a story map. However you want your students to repsond, make sure that you have modeled it first. I do: Model the response. We do: Practice completing the response together as a class. I always do the same response together over a few days. You do: have them do one on their own and grade it after we have had several chances to practice. Looking for some quick responding to reading activities? There are a variety of reading responses in this pack that you can either make into journals or use as worksheets!

Check out this quick video to see more!

Responding to Reading Idea #5

Let them do a Small Group Responses!

This one can be a lot of fun! Instead of individual student responding, have a small group respond. They can do different parts of the book, offer different opinions, act out their favorite part of the book, have a book discussion (with or without the teacher).

You could also have the small group do a written response together. Take a piece of construction paper. Write the response in the middle and divide the paper into spaces. Have the students get their pencil and gather around the paper. Each student responds, then they all share their response with their teammates! Take it to the next level and have them make a mask or a puppet and retell the story with their teammates! They LOVE it!

Responding to Reading with Specific Books!

I have done a whole series of “Mentor Text Monday” and “Book Talk Tuesday” posts that have specific Responding to Reading activities! Most of them include a freebie! You can check those posts out here:

Mentor Text Monday Posts

Book Talk Tuesday Posts

Thank you so much for stopping by! Pin the image below so you don’t lose these fun Responding to Reading Activities! Happy Teaching!

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