A Small Glimpse Into Our Summer Reading Conferences

I cannot believe that I only have 11 days left with my 5th grade kiddos!  The utter insanity of the end of the school year is in full force… report card writing, final assessments, parent conferences, meetings during every single planning period and after school, ordering supplies, planning promotion ceremonies, assemblies, parties, writing speeches, the list goes on! However, this doesn’t mean the critical work of teaching stops. In fact, it is ramping up!  My main goal right now is to make sure all my kiddos are  set up for summer reading success.  Of the (what seems like) 10,000 things I have to do in the next 11 days, making sure my kiddos each have a specific plan for summer reading is my most important job.

Over the past three days, I conferred with each of my students around their summer reading plans. We’ve been thinking, talking, sharing, revising, and planning out our summer reading for a couple weeks now, and I have to say my 5th graders have some thoughtful, intentional plans in store for their summer! All of their plans are completely unique and really show each of their specific personalities.

Here’s a glimpse into a few…

Harrison’s Plan for Summer

During our conference today, I asked Harrison to tell me about his thinking around his plan. He’s really looking forward to his downtime this summer- he’s going to explore his big interest even further, World War II, and continue with the Harry Potter series, which he started here in a fifth grade book club a couple months ago.

Chloe’s Plan for Summer

Every summer, Chloe and her family travel back to Greece to visit family, and she’s all set up for reading on her big trip. She is really excited to continue reading more books by Shannon Messenger and anything she can get her hands on about Hamilton.  When I asked about where she will get her books this summer, she responded that she already secured them through one of our local bookstores.

Nick’s Plan

Wow! Nick’s flowchart plan and his explanation of it during our conference really blew me away! Actually, Nick’s creativity and risk taking blew me away this entire school year. Nick is just as excited about writing this summer as he is reading. For reading, he has a different plan in mind depending on how the mood strikes him, and plans to continue pursuing journalism- a genre of writing he just fell in love with during the school year

Meg’s Plan

During our conference today, Meg talked about how she is so excited to tap into our middle school’s online Overdrive library. As a side note, I have to say  we are so fortunate to have such incredible teacher-librarians in my community. My students, especially Meg, thoroughly became excited about 6th grade when the middle school librarian paid us a visit a few weeks back. I wish all kids had access to such talented professionals.

Dion’s Plan

When Dion first came through my door in August, he was a self-identified nonreader.  With lots of determination on his part, conversations with his supportive parents, and an ongoing partnership with a dedicated specialist teacher at school, we’ve all devoted this school year to helping Dion view himself as a reader. During our conference yesterday, I reminded Dion of what he told me in the fall about his views of reading, and asked him how he now feels as a reader.  His response:  “I love reading.  I can’t wait to start Magnus Chase III”  And friends, there is nothing more important than that.