Examples of Readers Response

Reflecting on reading is an important skill that can be shown through many examples of readers response ideas. They can be quick, long, visual, written, oral and applied to any type of genre. Reading responses should be FUN in your classroom, not a mundane task that makes students cringe. The purpose of a reading response is to get students to reflect on their reading so lets get creative and change the way we look at a reading response.

With these examples of readers response plans, you will need a way to record student progress and reflections. Set up an assessment system in your classroom to get organized and make formative assessment a part of your regular teaching practice. Use this free guide below to get organized and keep better track of your student data.

What is a reader’s response

A reader’s response is the process of students reflecting, answering a prompt and responding to reading. When teaching students how to write a reader’s response, we often think it should be a formulated written piece. While that may be the end goal, there are multiple approaches to get students to that point. Whether it be a reader’s response kindergarten students use in a small group or a how to write a reading response 4th grade students lesson, remember students need to be confident in their ideas first, before we can add a written response. A reader’s response can be a great formative assessment as well so using a rubric is helpful here.

Reading response examples

We use reading responses to get students writing about reading as naturally and deeply as possible. I teach reading responses about once a week in my classroom, but I’ve found overall the more open ended approach helps the reading responses to be better quality than when students are trying to follow a formula. There are many ways to teach students to respond to reading. Here are a few of my favorites examples of reading responses that I use with most unit plans.

Quick jots

Quick jotting is writing down words, phrases or sentences, often on a sticky note. They are short thoughts to help a reader to stop and think while reading. These are especially important to teach during book clubs so that students have something to talk about with their groups. They can be directed like the picture below or more open-ended.

A reader may jot when learning new info, after seeing a strong image, when curiosity sparks, finding new words, having a reaction or idea to something or coming to an end of a section and wanting to remember what was read.

Often, quick jots answer a question or prompt. A prompt may include…

“I think ____ will ____ because ____” to make a prediction

” ____ feels ____ because ____” to answer how the character feels and why

Reading response journal examples

Using a journal is one of my favorite ways to teach reading responses. Typically, these responses tend to be a paragraph or more in length. A quick jot can be a starting place for these longer responses. Students may use them as reflection journals and respond each day as they are reading.

I like to teach many different types of reading responses that student practice in their journals. Once they have mastered how to write these different responses, students have choice in how they want to respond in their journals.

Using the R.A.C.E. response is a more formulaic approach but helps students to answer a question as they follow a pattern each time they respond. The double journal entry is another great response where students can learn to cite text evidence and thoughts they had about that evidence. Using a t-chart helps students to organize thoughts before writing a paragraph.

Reader’s response essay example

The last examples of readers response is an essay format. Students write a multi-paragraph essay starting with a thesis followed by three paragraphs of support. The concluding paragraph wraps up the thesis in a new way.

A great nonfiction example of this essay format called, a line that stuck with me, is a student favorite! This idea is from the Reading Strategy book written by Jennifer Serravallo. Students learn to write long about an idea by pulling a line that stuck with them and then responding in a more open-ended, authentic way – which is the purpose of reading response.

I start with an anchor chart teaching students how to “write long” and share a reading response example after reading an article to the class. We love the website Wonderopolis because it is free and packed with fun nonfiction articles. Students then get to choose an article, find a line that stuck out to them and write long. Rubrics are helpful here to keep students on the right track and make a great formative assessment! We use this digital notebook so students can link their article but a reading journal works too.

Some years, we try out a collaborative notebook with this strategy as well. This digital notebook has a recording sheet for each student included so that they can comment on their peers reading responses once they finish their own. Students have fun reading additional articles and become more familiar with this strategy as they get to read the responses of their peers.

Try One Out!

I recommend starting with jots and moving into journals before starting an essay. The more students practice, the faster they will become in their responses allowing them to slow down and think deeply about text. This may be challenging for some students at first, but keep going! Some students may be still be quick jotting while others are ready to write more. Take good notes and follow your classroom needs. Try one of these out this week!

And don’t forget to download the FREE guide to get the assessment system organized in your classroom so that you can keep better track of all these reading responses.