September 27,

2015
Dear Students and Families,
Welcome to a year of adventure, curiosity and ideas all captured in one
amazing place - your reading notebook!
Why is my reading notebook so important?
Your reading notebook is a tool that helps you both become a more
powerful reader and explore topics that you care about. In it youll apply
reading analysis strategies to different texts you are reading in order to come
up with and follow ideas about various authors perspectives on topics that
also matter to you. Keeping track of your thinking in your notebook allows
your teacher and classmates to help push your thinking. Your notebook also
helps you hold onto evidence you can use later and because you can flip
through it, you dont forget observations you make along the way. Figuring
out what these texts say will strengthen your reading, deepen your
knowledge about different topics, and will further help you explore your own
interests and beliefs.
When will I use my reading notebook?
You will use your reading notebooks during independent reading at
least 3 times a week. Additionally, you will be expected to use your reading
notebooks for nightly jots. Sometimes you will be using these notebooks
with independent reading books and sometimes you will be using the books
for a specific reading unit, such as partner books, read alouds, etc. As a
general guide, you are expected to read between 30-50 pages a night,
depending on the difficulty of the book and your reading pace.
What work will I put in my reading notebook?
JOTS
Every night, you will be expected to read and think about what you are
reading. Your jots shouldnt be a summary or retell of what you read assume we can figure it out or have read the book. Instead, you should jot
about character, plot, or theme. You can predict themes or plot
developments, question character motives and actions, give your opinions
on plot development or character actions. This can take many forms. You
may choose to flag specific spots in your book and write off that in your
reading notebook. Throughout the year you will build a bank of jotting
options that are designed to ramp up your thinking.
These will be graded daily using a short rubric for work habits. This will
be self-assessed with teacher supervision. Students will have the opportunity
to reflect on the rubric and set reading and notebook goals for the next
night.

WEEKLY REFLECTIONS
Once a week, students will be writing a longer entry into their
notebook; students will draw connections from their daily jots to state
something about their book. This is where students can, for example,
analyze a character, analyze issues, create and defend a theme using
evidence, compare themes in texts, and/or notice figurative language and
how and why authors use it.
This will be written weekly, but graded twice a month by the teacher
using a rubric that will be shared in advance. Students will have the
opportunity to reflect on the rubric and set reading and notebook goals for
the next week.
LITERARY ESSAYS
Once a unit, students will write a literary essay in class, based on jots
and weekly reflections, and have opportunities to revise the essay based on
mini-lessons that will address improving clarity and elaboration, choosing
good evidence, analyzing evidence, style and tone, and proper conventions
(grammar and spelling). This will be graded by the teacher using a rubric
shared in advance. Students will have the opportunity to reflect on the rubric
and set reading and writing goals for the next project.
MONTHLY NOTEBOOK CHECKS
Once a month, teachers will collect student notebooks to assess the
jots and weekly reflections overall for work habits (completion, neatness,
effort) and quality of reading work (pushing thinking, depth of analysis,
setting and sticking to personal reading goals). They will use a rubric that will
be shared in advance. Students will have the opportunity to reflect on the
rubric and set reading and notebook goals for the next week.
Please review this with your parents/guardians and make sure to
sign below:
Student Signature:
____________________________________________________________________
Parent Signature:
_____________________________________________________________________
If you have questions please feel free to email your childs humanities
teacher or bring them to Back to School Night (Tuesday, September 29th at
5:30pm). We are looking forward to a wonderful school year filled with lots
of reading!
Sincerely,

School of the Future Middle School Humanities Team

(Miriam Goldberg, Lindsay Powell, Whitney Lukens, Alena Weller, Christina
Vowinkel, Germaine Greene, Cricket Cooley, Woo Shik Kim, Deb Aslanian)

Attachments:
Jots Checklist
Reading Notebook Rubric