Tracking My Reading

In Monday's post, I wrote about one of my goals to read more.  After reading other bloggers' resolutions and goals, I wanted to pick a number to challenge myself as a reader.  (I was also shocked/disappointed/perplexed to learn that 28% of Americans have not read a book in the last year, according to the Huffington Post.  Yikes!)  I encountered an interesting problem.  I have absolutely what "number" would be realistic and stretch me as a reader.  I know I read a lot of picture books, but I don't feel like I have a concrete way to identify reading gaps.  I have I have never kept a reading list, unless it was required for a class.  As a teacher, I shied away from reading logs because they didn't seem authentic.  I would never curl up with a book and a reading log.  In Reading in the Wild, Donalyn Miller discusses how students track their reading in her classroom.  Although they begin as an accountability tool, the reading lists become a conferring tool to identify trends in students' reading, strengths, and areas for growth.  My personal experiences and Donalyn Miller's approach are prompting me to rethink my approach to tracking students' reading life and setting reading goals.

In terms of my reading goal for this year, 214 will be the magic number.  I just took the zero out of 2014.  Honestly, I have no idea if this is a really easy or really challenging goal.   Time will tell! On a side note, I would like to read 100 middle-grade and young adult novels.  I will be using Goodreads to track my reading, which will allow me to set a more meaningful goal in 2015 and notice trends and reading gaps.  I set up an account two years ago, but haven't done much with it.  I was playing around with it today and adding lots of titles to my To-Read list.  Excited to make better use of this site!  I'm already feeling motivated by recording my reading and watching my Reading Challenge progress.

What are your reading goals for 2014?  How did you decide?

Annie