How to Assess Small Group Conversation About Text
Sarah Picard

Giving grades for small group guided reading or book clubs can be difficult, and often our district report cards require a letter or numerical grade. I struggled to find ways in which I could develop assessment tools for the rich conversations that were happening in our fifth grade reading workshop. This checklist is a tool we are using to help assess our readers. Each of the items on the checklist was taught and is reinforced throughout the school year.

Daily Participation Requirements for Book Club Meetings

Name: _________________________ Date: ________________________

2 points are given for each item you do during a book club meeting.

___ Good readers come prepared to the meeting with the club text, reading response notebook, and pencil.

___ Good readers come prepared and ready for conversation about the text. This means that you have read the assigned text and your response is written completely in your notebook.

___ Good readers look at other members of the book club when they are in conversation. This also means that you need to participate in book club conversation at least twice each day.

___ Good readers point out evidence in the text to back up their comments when they are in conversation with other book club members.

___ Good readers try new reading strategies. This means that you are trying the reading strategies taught in the previous minilessons on shared reading.