How Can I Respond?

My first graders are spectacular, I think I have mentioned this before, they are moving right along with our plans in Reader's and Writer's Workshop. We specifically are doing some great things in Reader's Workshop. One of the awesome things that I am seeing is that my kids are responding to what they are reading, daily! We began a discussion about 2 weeks ago about managing our post-it notes, sketch notes, and question marks. How could we keep track of all these things organizationally? I brought this up to my students during a community time.
I had thought that I would like to show my kiddos reader's response notebooks next year if I got to loop with them. However, the timing was right and they seemed led to begin the work of readers. We discussed many different ways that readers respond. I showed them my "Teacher's Ideas" chub pad that I take just about everywhere professionally. I showed them my own reader's notebook that I keep at home by my bedside. I write little quotes, and questions, or new book I want to read. It's purely for enjoyment that notebook is...

So we took the leap, we got our guided reading notebooks from the basket and we placed them in our bins. I made a little piece of paper that became an "I can..." reference for responding to literature. Here are some of the important things I placed on that paper for each student:

How Can I Respond?

I can...

-Make a connection

this reminds me of

when I hear these words I thought of

-Ask questions

I wonder

-Make an image that I have as I read

-Make an opinion statement

I believe or I think

-Start a page of words that I think are fancy!

So everyday my kiddos go off to read and then I see them writing in their notebooks. I think perhaps they are just drawing or wasting time, but when I conference with them they are writing remarkable statements! It is just amazing what my kids can do when I trust them to do the work of a reader.