Being a 7th grade reading teacher, I’m emphasizing to learners that I want them developing their identities as readers. I want them turning reading into a habit and passion they take with them outside of the classroom and past this school year.

This emphasis is what led me to start experimenting with creating a student reading profile, a place students can go to see what they’ve accomplished this year and the progress they’ve made in developing their reading identities.

I’m using it for 7th grade reading, but this template could be adjusted to work for literally any class. Here are the three key parts you can customize to fit your class:

Personal Info (Top Left):

This is the section where students can personalize their profiles. They select their profile pictures, their descriptions (think of it like an Instagram bio but with a literary slant), some reading-related goals, links to docs they’re working on for class, and a list of books they’ve read this year with they’re 1-10 scores for each.

Learning Target Progress Chart (Top Right):

This bar graph is a snapshot of a learner’s progress towards different learning targets based on state standards. Each bar represents a collection of learning targets within an umbrella category. For example, there are four learning targets relating to main idea that learners will work towards mastering. Each time they achieve mastery in one of those learning targets, a piece of that main idea bar will turn blue. It’s a way for students, parents, and teachers to quickly visualize student progress throughout the year.

Achievement Badges* (Bottom):

This has to be the piece most fun for learners. It’s used to display badges representing different reading achievements students hit throughout the year. I created the badges themselves in Canva, an online graphic design tool. Achievements are milestones not tied to learning targets and, because of this, ungraded. They include reading certain numbers of books, reading books from different genres, etc. Here’s a full list for those interested!

Check out the video above for a more in-depth look at the reading profile. If you have questions or want to chat about making your own version, feel free to comment or connect with me on Twitter!

*The coding to do this is all from an article by Alice Keeler. She has A TON of great resources on teaching tech (especially Google Apps for Education); check out her website and Twitter.