Reading logs range from simple star charts in the early primary grades to detailed spreadsheets in the upper grades. In kindergarten and first grade, classrooms often have a chart hanging in a prominent area where all children track their reading together. When students have developed sufficient literacy skills to record the date on which they read, the title of the book they were reading and a few ideas about the text, these logs usually become individual to the child. Teachers typically review these logs weekly, using them to evaluate and record student progress and to spark conversations during reading conferences.
"Reader's response" is a generalized term for the infinite ways teachers ask students to report back on what they have read. In the early primary grades, this may simply take the form of students drawing a happy face or a sad face when they finish a book to indicate whether or not they enjoyed the story. As they begin to write more independently, children write short answers to prompts, pose their own questions about the text and reflect on their experiences as readers. As students' independent reading selections become longer and more complex, they may be required to respond at the conclusion of each section or chapter of a book. Teachers frequently use these responses to monitor students' comprehension and to guide future independent reading selections.
Reading conferences are more formal measures of a student's success with independent reading than a reading log or a reader's response piece. Used most frequently in the elementary and middle school grades, teachers schedule reading conferences with individual students once a week in order to get a snapshot of their independent reading progress. During reading conferences, teacher will usually ask students to read a portion of their independent reading book out loud in order to check their reading fluency. After this exercise, the teacher and student will discuss any struggles the child is having with the book, or they will focus on the particular skill or strategy the class is studying.
Unlike reader's response pieces, graphic organizers do not require students to form their own thoughts about an independent reading text into fully constructed written responses. Simple graphic organizers are easily filled out by crayon-wielding kindergarteners, long before they can write words or sentences. These organizers prompt young children to sequence a story, distinguish between characters and identify the main idea and details. More complicated organizers help older students create visual representations of their own knowledge, connecting their reading to their own experiences, to other books they have read and to the world around them.