The morning routine during the school year is often a whirlwind of activity. Although the school day doesn’t officially start until 9 a.m., there’s always a rush to get the kids ready and out the door. Today was no exception. I had to wake my younger son, the family’s late riser, a mere 10 minutes before departure, leading to a hurried breakfast and a quick tooth-brushing session.
Then came the dreaded reading log.
My aversion to reading logs is hard to overstate. While my children are not particularly avid readers, they do enjoy reading in short bursts: waiting for friends after school, during car rides to church, and before bedtime. The problem is, we struggle to keep track of when they read. Who really wants to time reading sessions and record the minutes? Not us.
What should be a delightful and enriching experience often devolves into a taxing chore filled with reminders from me and frustration from them. Instead of getting lost in a captivating story, they become fixated on the clock, reading merely to fulfill a requirement. The joy of reading is overshadowed by the pressure of documenting it, and I find myself nagging them about their logs or feeling guilty for neglecting to remind them.
I acknowledge the good intentions behind assignments like reading logs. Educators aim to foster a love for reading by setting daily reading goals. However, these well-meaning efforts frequently backfire, transforming an enjoyable activity into a burdensome task.
Research supports this notion, indicating that external pressures—like reading logs—can diminish intrinsic motivation. A study published in the Journal of Research in Education revealed that such logs can negatively impact students’ enthusiasm for reading.
This rings true in our household. The study concluded that when reading is seen as a chore, students may shy away from it during their free time.
Last year, we persevered through the reading logs for several months, but eventually I gave up. Since my children often read in bed, we frequently missed recording their reading times, leading us to guess which days they read and for how long. This practice felt dishonest, and I questioned the values I was instilling by allowing them to “fudge” the details just to complete an assignment.
Interestingly, neither of my sons’ teachers seemed to notice the absence of their reading logs, which suggests that even educators may not place significant importance on them. In fact, there is a growing trend among teachers who are moving away from such logs altogether.
As for this school year, we are just beginning our journey with reading logs again, and I’m trying to remain optimistic. Perhaps this time they will genuinely encourage my children to read more. But let’s be honest, I have my doubts.
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In summary, while reading logs are intended to promote good reading habits, they often transform reading into a chore, diminishing the joy of engaging with books.
Keyphrase: reading logs and their impact on children
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