Reading Response Homework

My school houses grades 2-4. Ever since I started we have only given math and reading homework each night for a total limit of 40 minutes. It increases 10 minutes each grade level. This has been the standard assigned work every night for 4th graders. (30 minutes of reading and about 10 minutes of math) Although I don't think homework should take forever, I do think it should be meaningful if we are going to assign it. That's why this year I made some changes and additions. 

This year, after much discussion with fellow teachers and parents, I decided to start some reading response homework for all my kids once a week. They are required to answer one question in a journal and hand in it by Friday. I correct them over the weekend (or during Spanish on Fridays) and hand them back with a grade and feedback on Monday. 

Students get to choose what question they want to answer from a list based on the genre they are reading. (See the list below.) The reason I don't assign a specific question is because some students don't always read the same genre. Although I encourage that they read the same book at school that they are at home, I would rather them have a balanced literacy "diet", which I teach them about in the beginning of the year. 

Before I started this assignment at home we do several responses together as a class and I model good responses for them. They also have opportunites to do them in class for certain tasks during reading

workshop. The questions are based on Teacher's College Reading Units of Study. The most valuable resources I have used to help them with their reading responses is from Runde's Room TpT resources. Her Building Better Responses has helped my kids know the expectations, set goals and write well written responses to reading. 

You can find my Response Question list and Homework Criteria on TpT.