Hello Teachers! I have students use this reading log to track their independent reading throughout the year. The log is easy to use and easy to adapt to your classroom needs. The log is set up with different tabs along the bottom. Each sheet serves a different purpose. My foundations for how I handle independent reading in my classroom come from reading The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller. I highly recommend this book. See below for quick tips on using this log.

• I provide each student with an electronic copy of this document. Students keep it and update it online regularly. It is designed to be used in a classroom where students have consistent access to technology.
• I protect the first sheet with the genre requirements, as well as any cells that I do not want students to change.
• The first sheet includes my suggested reading requirements, but can be changed or left out to fit your needs.
• The second tab is the actual log. I encourage students to fill in the information for each book (except the finished date and rating) as soon as they start reading a new book. This is so they don’t forget.
• If students do not finish a book, they leave it in their log, but leave the finished date blank. When I conference with students I ask about why they did not finish a book. This helps me when making book recommendations.
• The genre chart is to give a quick visual look at the genres students are reading. I have students fill in a block with a color as they finish a book in any genre. It starts to look like a bar graph over time.
• The wish list is for students to keep track of books they want to read, or books that people have recommended to them. I recommend books, and I encourage students to suggest books to each other as well.
• The conference tab is used for notes when I conference with students about their independent reading. The frequency of your conferences will depend on your classroom structure. I use the conferences to make suggestions, and encourage and praise students’ independent reading.