Independent Reading Center

Last year, I was looking at my centers and I felt like something was missing (maybe it was all of those close reading workshops getting to me!)...I realized that my students really needed to be responding to their reading more than they were.  I set to work making 5 activities they can do to have them look closely at what they are reading and respond to it in a meaningful way.

I made a few copies while at school this week and started setting up this center:

I forgot to write that the beanie babies are in pairs so the reading buddies have matching beanie babies.

It is a lot of writing and worksheets but that's what I need them practicing!  Especially before the state tests.  When I introduced these last year, my students really liked it.  They felt like these were "big kid" activities because this was our only center that wasn't game-like.  I'm starting these right away this year and I'm going to play it up as a center for older kids....although I may wait before doing that because I can see some of my students with autism saying or thinking: "These are for older kids, not for me so I'm not doing it".

I love how fast this was to set up...literally just print, add books and voila an entire center is set up (seriously this took 30 minutes)!  If this looks like something you want to use in your room, you can get it here or by clicking on any of the pictures above.

What do you do to practice responding to reading?