Reading+Journal

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Welcome to our reading journal. During independent reading, the students read self-selected books that are “just right” for them. These books challenge the students to use their reading strategies, but they aren’t frustrating to the students. The students choose a book from a variety of leveled texts on their independent reading level. They use post-it notes to help them interact with the text and gain a deeper understanding of the book. Throughout the book, the students are learning to pause and think about what they have read. On the post-it notes, they write predictions, questions, inferences and their own thoughts. It is a wonderful sight to see all my students engaged in their books. In addition, some students have joined a book club. These students work together and read the same independent book. They pause at different spots throughout the book to reflect on what they have read, what they think and what they are wondering about. They write their thoughts down in their reader response journal and then share their responses with the group. The discussions are great and the students are learning new ideas from one another. As a facilitator of these discussions, my role is to ask probing questions and to try to get the students to think outside the box…These book clubs are about more than retelling the information in the book. The goal is to have the students be able to apply, analyze, synthesize and evaluate the knowledge and information obtained from the text. I hope you enjoy their thought process as they learn to be deeper thinking.
 * __ Reading Journal  __**