Reading is an important skill to learn as it has many benefits for a child's overall development. You can record a child's progress with these skills within this helpful reading diary; it has space for comments, so you identify where a child's strengths are and where they may need more support.

This diary supports and prepares for the important reading and writing attainments at the end of KS2. In Year 6, children are expected to read widely and frequently so that they are developing the skills to write with fluency and ease. The Learning Tools in the Year 6 Reading Diary enable the child to use their reading to discuss, debate, listen and introduce appropriate vocabulary and grammar for different audiences. Like every tool we have at our disposal in the classroom, reading diaries will be what we make of them. Used well, they can be wonderful. Used without thought, they become another thing to do, hoovering up valuable teacher time. And like everything we do in school, we have the power to change this if we wish. A display board with a bare tree ready to be covered in leaves can function as an effective whole-class reading record. Each time a child completes a book, they add a leaf with their name and the book, building into a wonderful display. When conducting a research, we focus on the quintessence of what we read: how it is important, different and innovative. Typically we compare what we just read to our body of knowledge and write down how it adds to our knowledge: discoveries, new facts, different research methods, a new perspective on the subject. It is normal so summarize this comparison in a fully drafted text of several paragraphs. It is important to mention where we assumed we could use the books or articles in our bibliography and provide a full citation.The articles I want to write about are grouped in clusters of 4-6 articles and I schedule a blog post subject for a future review as a cluster.

At their best, reading diaries can be a useful record of a child’s reading – a reliable means of communication between home and school. But the traditional model can bring challenges. Many reading records or diaries are referred to as journals, but how many actually are journals? How many children have a space to respond in the way they want to the books they read, without having a set format or structure to follow? Our motivation and recreation is also a worthy task, so we can read a book because it simply makes us feel better. Sometimes it is fun to identify which specific elements in the book influenced ask and look for other sources of the same elements: suspense, romance, insight, imagination. Social diary For every teacher who values the window these diaries offers into a child’s wider reading, there is another who winces at the sight of 22 books awaiting comment (plus, naturally, another six to chase up and a further two that haven’t been seen for several weeks).For the youngest children, where the emphasis is on parents to fill them in, there are two issues. Firstly, for some parents, completing the reading diary becomes a badge of honour. If the answer is anything less than a resounding ‘yes’, then we should give serious thought as to whether it is worth us expending our valuable time and energy. Keeping a reading log or book journal can work well for poetry, plays, and other works of literature as well, though you may want to adjust the questions accordingly.

If you were the author, would you have changed the name of a character or altered the location of a scene? Outline the books and articles I want to read as a part of my weekly schedule and my personal goals.Encourage active reading skills: Active reading is the activity of reading to understand and evaluate a text. This helps students, children to broaden their understanding of a text or knowledge of a subject as simply reading and re-reading the material isn't an effective way to understand and learn. Reading dairies and writing reflective comments is a fantastic way to encourage active reading by recording what they have learnt or felt about a text or topic.