Reading Response Menus: A Recipe for Reading Success!

To say that my life has been a whirlwind over the past two weeks would be a pretty big understatement, but here I am.  My sweet pup is back in surgery again, and we're pretty much breathing into paper bags over here. Vet bills (especially pet emergency bills) are seriously panic inducing!  It should be a crime to charge that much!  Am I right?!  On top of that, I landed in the ER over the past week myself, my dad's had some health complications, and my hubby was in a minor car wreck.  Thankfully, we're all doing okay!  I guess it's just one of those seasons in my life.  I've been through many of them already in my 29 years, and I am sure I will go through many more.  ;)  I am just trying not to fuss... and I'm trusting that God will take over.  He always does, and He always provides.  I've had my fair share of life traumas, and I've always come out of the other end stronger than before, and changed for the better.  Do you know what though, I am so blessed with great friends, a supportive family, and an extended support system of bloggers and blog followers, so who could really ask for anything more?!  Except maybe more time to blog.  I've been really iffy lately.  Ha!  I have a lot of catching up to do, and several things to (hopefully) work into some blog posts once things slow down over our holiday break.  I'll just go ahead and cross my fingers now!

Needless to say, I've been a little preoccupied, and it's taken me FOREVER to finish my reading response menu packet.  The good news is, I had plenty of time for field testing!  We've been doing them for almost two nine-weeks, and the kids are crazy about them!  I am even MORE crazy about how well it's going! So, here's the deal!

The Reader Response Menu: A Recipe for Reading Success packet is seriously one of my favorite resources ever.  The 64 page packet (jam-packed with 41 different reading response menus and different templates for student responses) was created to address a variety of standards, higher-order thinking skills, and genres in an easily adaptable and predictable structure! What's more, with this set, you can assign a different menu every week for the entire school-year without running out or repeating the same menu twice! These reading response menus can be used as homework (like I do with my class), as morning work, as part of your independent reading centers, as part of your literature circle approach, or they can be integrated into your interactive journals by cutting and gluing them into your notebooks! They can be used with your main selections, literature circles, small groups, or independent reading. No matter what, they are a great tool for differentiation and providing students with GUIDED CHOICE as they interact with texts.  It's been working like a charm! :)  Since I LOVE it so much, and it wasn't finished in time for the site-wide sale, I'm putting it on sale for 20% off through tomorrow (Monday, December 16, 2013).  I hope you will find them as useful as I do!

 

So, here are a few examples of what the Reading Response Menus look like.  Most of them are mixed skills divided into the larger categories of fictional or informational texts... and they apply to a variety of genres.  There are a few specifically skill based menus, and the rest are correlated to Bloom's.  :)  

 This is the template I use most often.  I run homework packets with the Reader Response Menu on the top, with one lined page per response, and two copies of page 6, front to back!  I assign it on Monday, and it comes back to me on Friday.  The kids pick four out of the six activities to complete.

 If you want to try your hand at incorporating this into an existing interactive notebook, you can use the templates I've included in the file.  For this first template, I would cut down the middle so I had five independent flaps to work with and arrange on the page.  The five flap flipbook is just another option.  It has less writing space, but it's nice and compact!  If you wanted to play around with sizing on a printer, you could resize ANY of the pages in this file to customize it & make it work for you!

 This is the only template for response number 6.  All 41 menus have a box for vocabulary instruction because that is an area that I am always trying to grow.  I want them to constantly be thinking about the words they are encountering in their texts, and this transfers between fictional and informational texts with ease.  It's definitely made a HUGE impact on the vocabularies of my own students this year! 

Now that you've had a chance to check out the basic premise of the pack and what some of the templates look like,  here's how everything looks in action!  I managed to take a few snapshots a few weeks ago!  :)

Again, what do I love so much about this?!  I love that I don't have to spend time racking my brain week after week about what my students will do for homework.  I love that every response is meaningful.  I love that I can assign independent reading for homework without requiring them to fill out a reading log.  I love that this extends the thinking they have already done while they read for twenty minutes at home.  I love that they can choose their own books at their own levels, and it will work for all of my kiddos.  I love that I could assign different menus to different kids if I wanted to.  I love that it give students a choice in how they are going to demonstrate their understanding of the text.  I love that it works with picture books and chapter books.  I love that the process is predictable, so it becomes familiar to my students, and only the skills change.  I also love that, should I ever decide to go a different direction with homework, this resource isn't a wash.  I could use it for morning work, and a whole year of MEANINGFUL morning work would be readily available.  If I didn't want to do that, I love that I could use them in Read to Self or small groups.  I just LOVE the flexibility I have with this product, and most of all, I love how it has simplified my approach to homework while simultaneously stretching my students and improving their written responses.  For someone who believes in trying to work smarter, not necessarily harder, this is a breath of fresh air.  Happy Sunday, friends!