Offering Choice in your Reading Response Activities

Reading Response activities will likely form a major part of your reading programme, whether you are running guided reading groups, a daily 5 system, literature circles or a reading workshop set up. It is time-consuming to create follow up activities for every book or text that your students read, so it is great to have ready to go activities that work across a range of genre.

I wrote previously about engaging students in reading comprehension activities, and this blog post is a good follow on from that.

I explained the need to:

Providing engaging texts
Offer a variety of follow-up activities
Build independence and offer choice
Differentiate, not separate

Build independence and offer choice

After considering the idea of fostering independence in students and allowing them chances to choose (some) of their follow up activities, I created a resource that I think will be really useful in your classroom. I’ve put together a freebie so that you can try it out. Keep reading for the link!

When I put together this resource I ensured the resource:

Could be used for both fiction and non-fiction texts
Offered choice but also ensured a range of skills were covered
Covered a range of comprehension skills
Is easy for you to grab, photocopy or laminate, and get to your students quickly.

Fiction and Non-Fiction Reading Response Activities

In these activity sheets, I have ensured a range of activities are available, with some compulsory tasks and some student choice. I have identified the specific skills so that student and teacher can quickly see the purpose of each activity. Students will enjoy the opportunity to choose some of their activities, while you can rest easy knowing that their follow-up activities are purposeful and engaging.

Tips for Use

Model how to use this resource. Show your expectations for how to set out their answers in their exercise book (or on a digital device).
Print and give to students as a worksheet to complete. Students use coloured pencils to show the question’s that they have completed.

Alternatively, laminate the Must Do, Choose Two boards and give students whiteboard pens/dry erase markers to mark the questions they have completed. I have had feedback from teachers that this is working well in their classroom. Additionally, it saves on photocopying time, and once they are set up, the hard work is done.

Scroll down to download this freebie instantly.

Reading Response Must Do, Choose Two boards

If you are looking for a large pack of reading response activities, then we have a full set containing 20 fiction and non-fiction/informational reading response activities.

The following fiction reading skills are covered:

Make Connections
Determine Importance
Character Analysis
Ask Questions
Visualize
Inference
Theme
Plot
Sequence
Summarize
Point of View
Cause and Effect
Evaluate
Compare and Contrast
Creative Thinking
Vocabulary
Genre

The following non-fiction reading skills are covered:

Author’s Purpose
Text Features
Vocabulary
Main Idea
Summarize
Ask Questions
Make Connections
Organization of Ideas
Prior Knowledge
Find Specific Details
Research Skills
Fact or Opinion

Try our Must Do, Choose Two Reading Response activities in your classroom today.

Reading Comprehension Passages and Questions

Our range of reading comprehension activities provide:

Engaging texts
Variety
Choice
Independence
Differentiation

Click here to see our full range!

We put together a blog post with tips on how to engage students in reading comprehension activities. Click here to have a read! There is a bonus FREEBIE included!

Help Year 3 and 4 students add choice in their reading

Save your time and know that your students are completing follow-up activities featuring a range of reading skills and higher-order thinking. This resource provides follow-up activities for the Ready to Read Purple Level readers found in New Zealand schools. An engaging “Must Do, Choose Two” format is used to develop your students sense of agency and choice.

Please note, to use this resource, you need to have access to the Purple Level Ready to Read readers, found in New Zealand primary schools.