When my students read for FVR (Free voluntary reading) in my Spanish Language Arts class, I want them to respond to what they’ve read. While some proponents of World Language FVR say that students should never be required to do anything with what they read, I disagree with this. First, writing a response to reading helps students learn and process what they’ve just read. Second, requiring a response will give them the chance to practice explicit reading strategies, like forming questions and making predictions. Third, it holds students responsible for what they have read; they can’t just sit with a book in front of their face for 20 minutes, they know they’ll actually have to read.
Ideally, students will be reading books that are so interesting that they can’t wait to react to what they just read. Realistically, I know that students will need guidance to write these responses. Last year I did not provide enough guidance. My high students wrote some great responses, but other students continuously wrote very short summaries that didn’t further their learning. So, this year I created a poster en español, of course, of ten ways they can respond to reading. Grab the free PDF below and blow it up poster size or print it out on letter size paper and have students glue it in their notebooks as a reference.
