Reading with Presence: Crafting Meaningful, Evidenced-Based Reading Responses

I am a first year teacher in an IB school in Quito, Ecuador, and I have used the methods in this book throughout the year. I have found Reading Response journals to be the single best method that I incorporated from the beginning of the year. Reading Responses allow my students to explore a text and to respond with a wide variety of choice, teaching my students that their own unique insights are important and valuable. Reading Responses have given my students the ability to write literary analysis, with evidence, that reflects their own thoughtful journeys through a text. Once completed, Reading Responses prepare my students, mostly all ELLs, with the vocabulary and formulated sentences to participate actively in classroom discussions. I have also incorporated student Reading Responses into a variety of assessments, sometimes assigning particular topics, like "Make a Connection" in order to hit strands in the MYP5 rubric. I am thrilled with this book, and I would make a strong recommendation of this method to any educator looking for more student-centered learning in their English literature classroom.

This book!! As a veteran reading teacher and a true bibliophile, I purchased this book to help me find a stronger, more meaningful way to engagement my 5th graders in their reading responses. This book has helped me do just that.Geared toward middle and high school students, I was concerned it would be too advanced for my students. What it has done, however, is have them engage with the text in a deeper, more thought-provoking way. I purchased the book in January and started using the responses in February. Next year, I will begin my school year with this type of text engagement in their reading journals. This book has also changed the dialogue surrounding text in my classroom. I feel as though we are becoming a stronger reading community, and this has been my goal all along.Thank you, Marilyn Pryle and Heinemann Publishing!!!