Reading diaries - what do you write?

[Lollydaydream]

Dd1 has just started reception and we get two books time a week and a reading diary to write in. I assume this is fairly standard. I was wondering what kind of things and how frequently people write in them and maybe if there are any teachers out there what are they used for?

At the moment I've been writing in it about once per book and now we've been doing it for a while my comments are getting a bit samey. I guess that's bit inevitable?

I used to write in it every time I heard ds read (so every day). Note down how many pages, and which words she struggled with.

I never write a comment, just date and page we got to. I might write a comment for the teacher if I wanted to bring her attention to something. I verbally praise at the time of reading so don't feel the need to write 'Super reading!' 'dd read this very well today', well done dd!' etc

My daughter can read quite well and I had lots of things to write, mainly not about her school books because they're very very simple and very very short. So comments would all have been my daughter has read this and found it easy. But after a while the teacher asked me not to list all the library books my daughter reads (and she reads loads) because I was filling up the diary. So in the end I've got my daughter to write in the diary and every entry now says I've read this!

I'm told that in later years when the books get too long to read in one go then the diary starts being useful in order to record where the child got to. (Not that a bookmark wouldn't do the same job.) In the end I suspect that it's just a device to check that the parents aren't falling down on the job. It probably wouldn't matter if you wrote about aliens and exploding chemistry experiments.

I mostly just write the book and pages read and then "reading completed". It's useful for the school to see how frequently the child reads at home. Both my DC's schools also give "rewards" for frequent reading at home.

How much she read
whether she enjoyed the story
new words
anything she struggled with
comments about pace, intonation, expression and punctuation

I generally just date and sign. Praise like "well read" etc. makes me cringe as my dc don't usually bother reading the reading diary, so it sound terribly show off to me.

I will comment if the dc as particularly enjoyed/not enjoyed a book-ask for more the same or if we can move off the topic.

I did write in my dd (year 4) diary earlier this term.
"I think my dd has mislead you over her reading ability. She is very much enjoying the praise she is getting for reading her book so well, but this is because she has chosen the books so she can give them to her younger brother in year 1 (her excuse). Currently at home she chooses to read Jacqueline Wilson, Chalet School Stories, and has just finished The Secret Garden".

Teacher was a bit and very apologetic . But dd had done a very good job of stumbling around over the first book to get her own way on this.

Dd's comment was "mummy that's not fair, now I won't get so many house points for reading so nicely"

DeWe you rDD will go far !

Just sign, date and page numbers usually.

"We have read this"

"Read this"

"I read it to him & he still can't read a word for himself"

"Finding it hard/easy/boring"

Sometimes I will write useful info like: ds struggled to reecognise all the capitals, ds and I discussed aliteration, dd is struggling with the context of this book, dd found it difficult to pronounce the foreign/topic specific vocabulary so we looked it up on google.

Mostly it is: Read to page X

Occassionally (particulary in reception when books seem to be a bit poor and are only allowed to be changed weekly, but need to be read 5 times to get a sticker) I write ds/dd receited this book fluently without even looking at the words.

I usually which book/pages we read, anything he struggled with etc. ie last night I wrote something like "Read to page 55, read with great expression but struggled with xxx" I can't remember what the word was he struggled on now!

It is really useful to wrote in it, even if it's just to say "read to page x". As a volunteer who reads in school regularly it helps to know if they've read at home etc.

Read 5 times to get a sticker What's the point? With the easier books mine would know it off by heart by the third time, longer books they take long enough to read anyway.

I think I'd write "If you want me to read a book 5 times with them, I'd be obliged if you could send 5 books home as we are both bored by the third time through."

that's true, Once they really are reading you make a note "Read pages 6-9" etc. It helps the listener in class to start in right place. Or words they stumbled on, so "Mostly okay but struggled with 'brother' and 'friend'".

Thanks everyone, it's been interesting to read and I think dewe's dd will go far!
Sounds like it's of more practical use when they are older or on longer books - a time which seems mythically far away at present! dd's main reading style at the mo involves bouncing around going h h h, a a a, t t t - mat!

That's better than us. We get "h h h h h a a a a a t t t t t.... sam?"

Second child, so more laid back. Books are officially changed by the school once a week but we are allowed to change them our selves as often as we like. The books are stored by the door and have a big sign saying 'please borrow'. We read about 5 nights a week each time for about 15 mins. I just list the book and page number here and there. Occasionally i might say that son struggled with a specific sound or found the book too easy.

'Read easily. Can we have something harder next time?' Have been saying variants on this since May. Tell me I'm not the only one...

I particularly wanted to avoid that version of stuck-record-itis.

Examples:
Fine
No problems
No issues
Read well except "....". "...."
Read well except "..." but made a good attempt at sounding out / guessing from context / guessing from rhyme
Struggled with some of the technical vocab (e.g mechanical) but otherwise fine
Really enjoyed this
Really didn't enjoy this
Good expression today
Had fun using index / table of contents

Occasionally I might write something like "Has set this book to song and sings it morning, noon and night and I blame you!" but that is because I am friends with her teacher...

DD1 seems to be at the only school in the country where the children write in the reading diary, not the parents- starting from reception! I do find it quite strange, as I would quite like to put the occasional comment. It would probably be ok if I did, but that definitely isn't the aim of the diary.

Always 3 or 4 books, so just write her favourite and any hard words.

We get a book each day so we write the diary each day. Comments vary from nothing to telling that it was too easy, too hard, which words DD couldn't read to concerns we had with her reading.

In Reception the diary was checked each day by the TA but we often got comments from the teacher if we had a question so the TA gave these diaries to her for further commendation.

By accident DD once took home the book bag of her classmates and I only spotted it because the reading diary was full of the parent's comments, I think they needed a new page every couple of days while we had 1 page for 2 weeks in the first weeks of school.

Now in Year 1 the teacher checks the diary when DD does her guided reading once a week.