Before 2018 gets too far away from us, I asked my students to look back at their reading from last year including both 5th and 6th grades. They are continuously picking up new books without going back to reflect upon what were the top reads and why. As a class, we started brainstorm what should be included in our post including the obvious like title, author, plot, etc. But more importantly, I wanted them to express why those books made an impact on them. At one point, we individually started making a list of what we read from last year. Its honestly amazing how many we had in common or simply how we would remind each other about books we read. When students were asked to put pick out their top 5, you should have heard several of them say, “How can we only pick 5?, Can we add a 6th book to our list? What if it is a series like, can we just count that as one?” Of course I gave in and said yes to the last two questions. But more importantly, this shows me their love of reading and how it’s important to give them time to reflect on their reading. Be sure to check out my student posts on the “Best Books of 2018.”