Reading Record Chart

Preteens and teens can use this chart to keep track of the books, stories, and magazine articles that they've read over a period of time. 

How to Use This Printout

More Ideas to Try

 

How to Use This Printout

Young adults benefit as readers and as writers when they read a wide variety of materials, ranging from magazine articles and novels to comic books and newspaper editorials.  Encourage teens to keep track of the title, author, and genre of each text that they read, so that they can feel proud of their accomplishments.  Ask teens, too, to write briefly explaining their overall feeling about each text, offering a specific reason or reasons why.

1. Print one or more copies of the Reading Record Chart and make it available to the teen or teens with whom you are working. For each text that they read, ask them to record the title, author, genre, and beginning/ending reading dates.
2. Ask teens to evaluate each text by completing the following sentence, "I liked/didn't like this text because . . . ."
3. Talk to your teen about why he or she liked or didn't like a particular text. Engaging young people in discussions about various texts will help them become more confident both in talking and in writing about the ideas of others - an important skill for students to have in school and in our democratic society.

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More Ideas to Try

• Challenge teens to read texts from a wide variety of genres and talk with them about the different forms and styles of the genres they read. What do they notice about the form and style of a newspaper article, a comic strip, a magazine feature story?
• Ask teens to share with you the connections that they make with their reading. Does a character in the book remind them of someone that they know? Does the setting of the book remind them of somewhere that they have been? Talking about these connections help teens reflect more thoughtfully about their reading and discover how books relate to their own life experiences.
• Encourage your teen to host a party where friends can share the titles of favorite texts and maybe even begin a book reading group of their own.
• Read a text with your teen and write letters back and forth to each other in a journal about the reading. If your teen prefers to send e-mails to a friend about a book, that's fine, too. When teens practice writing about their reading, they become more fluent and more comfortable incorporating the ideas of others in their writing.

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