Reading Journals

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Home : 2002 : July : 29

Reading Journals
By Jenny

Jennie,

I have used the reading journals the past two years. They are wonderful. I have learned so much about how my students think as they read. I have not had any ESL students, but I have had some Special Needs students.
I just adapted the requirements to meet their specific modifications. I made the journal in a 2 pocket pronged folder. We added a part each day and I did a mini-lesson on the purpose of each part- just like GR&W. Then when we got to the reading response journals we read some picture books together and then gradually some chapters of books and I would write a letter, pretending

to be the student. I also took some of the letters from GR&W and put them on overhead for them to look at. I assigned days to turn them in. There was a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday group. Now, about how you grade them, I have a resource book called 40 Rubrics and Checklists to Assess Reading and Writing. It is put out by Scholastic. They have a rubric in the book for reading response journals. I just assigned point values to each level. I taught my students how they would be graded. The first two they do, I do not grade I give suggestions. I love to write back to them, and they love for you to write to them. At the end of every grading period the students choose their 3 best entries and we average it for an additional grade. I hope all this makes sense. When I have guided reading groups my other students are reading silently, responding in their journal(depending on what day their journal is due) or working on an extension from their guided reading story. Good luck. Let me know how your reading workshop goes. I am always changing and would love some ideas.

Jenny