Reading Calendars for Busy Students

One of our grade 10 History teachers is using guided choice historical fiction to make his content come alive for students. Story is what really engages our thinking, so he's using a story-based approach to hook students and help them connect the facts from his lessons to characters' emotions.

For his unit about the Industrial Revolution, I book-talked historical fiction (like Dickens) as well as dystopian novels in which society has been changed by technology. See the booklist list here.

As they read, students will examine the essential question, "How does technology impact society?"

After students chose their novel, we completed a reading calendar to help them stay on track with finishing their book. The calendar serves as a bookmark and a note-taking tool. They fill in the page they should be on at the end of each day. This is also a quick way for the teacher to see if they are on target to finish in time.

See the bookmark/calendar here. 

Here's a sample that shows how it should look after the kids do the math :)