Jazzing up the Journal

1. Jazzing up the Journal Ways to foster a love of reading through the use of a Reading Journal Stuart Gaston-Nash & Helen Carr

2. Agenda • What are Reading Journals? • Why keep Reading Journals? • How to keep Reading Journals • How can Reading Journals be put to effective use in the classroom? • What resources are available to assist in using Reading Journals? Stuart Gaston-Nash & Helen Carr

3. What are Reading Journals? • A Reading Journal provides children with an opportunity to reflect upon and respond to text, also offering opportunities to develop a written response to text; • A Reading Journal provides teachers with useful information about children’s thinking processes and comprehension as they interact with text. Stuart Gaston-Nash & Helen Carr

4. What are Reading Journals? • In Reading Journals, children respond to their reading using an important form of writing – writing to learn. • When they write to learn, children attempt to make personal sense of their reading experience as well as build connections between what they already know and the new ideas they encounter. • This type of writing helps children to construct their own knowledge, develop their thinking and reflect on their learning. • It is part of the process by which understanding can be communicated to others in a range of written and oral genres. Stuart Gaston-Nash & Helen Carr

5. What are Reading Journals? • Reading Journals can range from being informal, in which children express their own personal responses, to structured learning logs in which children record thoughts and comments through review type formats. • Whichever approach is adopted, using Reading Journals is useful in that they: • Encourage children to think and articulate their thoughts; • Make their learning personal; • Support self-exploration and self-discovery; • Focus children’s attention on values, attitudes and ethical issues; • Support the key learning processes of negotiation, collaboration and reflection; • Improve children’s writing Stuart Gaston-Nash & Helen Carr

6. What are Reading Journals? • The First Steps Reading Resource Book helpfully lists a range of suggestions as to what reading journals are generally considered to be. • A journal could include: • A set of personal goals for reading • A list of texts read with commencement dates, this is usually kept separated from other entries • Thoughts or feelings, recorded in response to reading • Drawings of settings, characters or events • Phrases or words that have excited or puzzled the reader • Predictions • Suggested changes readers would have made if they had been the author • Comments on characters, illustrations, diagrams, layout or language used. Stuart Gaston-Nash & Helen Carr

7. Why keep Reading Journals? • Reading Journals are most valuable in that they require children to express in writing their own personal interests and insights into reading and build on the skills they already intuitively possess: the ability to observe, to listen, to take notes, to reflect on their notes, and to ask questions that are borne out of a sense of genuine curiosity. • Furthermore, giving children space and encouragement to record their personal thoughts and reactions to their reading can also allow them the opportunity to locate their own specific points of engagement with the text – even, or especially, if they initially react to the text negatively. Stuart Gaston-Nash & Helen Carr

8. How to keep Reading Journals • Reading Journals can be kept by children in a variety of ways but the following suggestions are the most frequently used. • The suggestions are directed toward reading fiction texts, but you can apply them to other kinds of text. • For each text read, the notes made by the children in their journals may include all or some of the following suggestions, depending on the amount and type of reading involved and also the child making those notes! Stuart Gaston-Nash & Helen Carr

9. How to keep Reading Journals • Personal thoughts and reactions • Aim to be open about reactions to the text, rather than limiting responses to ‘I liked (or hated)’ type of statements; • Be reflective, thinking about why you may be responding the way you are; • Allow yourself room to change your mind – maybe list initial thoughts on the left of a page, allowing for later reflections, additions, comments or questions on the right! Stuart Gaston-Nash & Helen Carr

10. How to keep Reading Journals • Comments and Questions on plot, narrative structure, point of view, characters, or setting • Use these and similar questions to guide children’s responses as they read:- • Plot: What is the main dilemma? How are other dilemmas related? What causes the dilemmas? • Narrative Structure: How does the story move on? Does the story move chronologically? • Point of view: Who tells the story? Why do you think the author has chosen this point of view? • Characterisation: How are the characters portrayed? • Setting: Where does the action take place? Stuart Gaston-Nash & Helen Carr

11. How to keep Reading Journals • Observations on context • Recording observations and questions about the locations or the historical period depicted in the text can be useful for encouraging cross-curricular links • Children simply take notes on what they ‘observe’ with regards to:- • Gender roles • Family relationships • Social class • Cultural background • Interior & Exterior space (architecture, countryside, etc.) • They may then choose to conduct further research to discover more about the context of their observations! Stuart Gaston-Nash & Helen Carr

12. How can Reading Journals be put to effective use in the classroom? • The key to using reading journals in the classroom is getting children to use them as a tool to help them engage with their reading and their response to that reading. • Engagement with the text is paramount! • Similarly, any reading related tasks should be achievable and stimulating. • For example, “Draw and label your impression of the first character you meet” is better than “Describe the main characters with reference to appearance, personality and relationships with other characters. • Why? Stuart Gaston-Nash & Helen Carr

13. How can Reading Journals be put to effective use in the classroom? • Because: • The first is quick and doesn’t detract from the reading! • The first is not writing! • The first sets up the important questions – how the author builds and shapes our view of the characters. Later on, simply challenge the child to adapt the drawing to reflect new information. • The second requires writing – and daunting writing at that for such an early stage in a book. • The second kills any chance of the child engaging with the text and overcoming any prejudice about reading and texts! • The second reinforces the “we read, then we write about it” experience rather than “we read, then respond to it.” Stuart Gaston-Nash & Helen Carr

14. How can Reading Journals be put to effective use in the classroom? • The “We read, then we write about it” experience. • Writing is fine for jotting down ideas, thoughts and reflections but should generally be kept to a minimum. • “What do you think could be the star sign of the main characters?” will focus reluctant readers on characterisation much better than a formal extended writing task. • Once the child stops fearing the reading journal, then extended, pupil prompted, reflective writing is often the outcome – “we read, then respond to it.” Stuart Gaston-Nash & Helen Carr

15. How can Reading Journals be put to effective use in the classroom? • The following are some suggested activities:- • Book Bites: • Ongoing throughout the reading of the book, the child draws the front cover (frequently what drew them to it in the first place!) also making short ‘bite-size’ responses on how they feel the cover relates to the book and how they might change the cover to better reflect the story. • Directed Freewrites: • Prior to class discussion on a particular passage, character, scene or question, allow time for a freewrite – this if often a good way to stimulate discussion, giving children practice in writing short analyses and reflections on their reading to which they can refer back. This could even be good preparation for a hot-seating activity. Stuart Gaston-Nash & Helen Carr

16. How can Reading Journals be put to effective use in the classroom? • Journal Swap: • As an alternative to class discussion, this gets all children participating and gives them practice in sharing their writing and their responses to reading, on a relatively informal basis, with their peers. Starting once again with their own freewrite in response to a passage, character, scene, etc. on the left side of the page, the children swap journals and then respond to his/her peer’s freewrite. • There are many variations to this. For example, children might be asked to pose a question which when passed on, receives a partner’s written engagement to the reading. Children may swap several times in order to have many different voices participating in their journals. Stuart Gaston-Nash & Helen Carr

17. How can Reading Journals be put to effective use in the classroom? • I notice, I wonder statements: • These two phrases can be used to prompt children in articulating their unique interests, questions and speculations about their reading. • Children might be asked to write two sentences in their journal at various points in reading a text: the first beginning with “I notice,” the second with “I wonder.” • This can also work well in combination with the journal swap wherein peers can respond with their own speculations. “I noticed this too, but I wondered if…” Or “I didn’t notice that, but I did notice this related thing, Like you, I wonder if…” Stuart Gaston-Nash & Helen Carr

18. How can Reading Journals be put to effective use in the classroom? • Individual/Affective Responses: • Children, like all readers, will have their immediate personal and emotional responses to a text and these can often provide them with valuable insights if they can later apply them critically. • On the left side, record their immediate response, being as specific as they can (that is they cannot say, “ I hated this”). Encourage them to describe their reaction as vividly as possible (ie. “This novel made me feel really uncomfortable, like I was wondering around a place where I didn’t want to be.”) • Once again, swap journals, read the reaction and then write their own response, considering what specifically from the text may have evoked such a response (“I noticed that the first thing the narrator does is shout rudely at his parents and run away. I wonder if this is why you felt uncomfortable.”) Stuart Gaston-Nash & Helen Carr

19. What resources are available to assist in using Reading Journals? • Each child, each class, each school will have its own approach to Reading Journals. • There are many resources available, those produced by educational suppliers, those made by other teachers and practitioners and those you create yourself. • The key is finding the resource that works within your school, works for your class and engages each individual child with their reading. • It is fairly certain therefore that the more resources you have available, the greater chance you will have of helping every child to succeed in engaging with their reading through their journal. Stuart Gaston-Nash & Helen Carr

20. What resources are available to assist in using Reading Journals? • First of all, some suggested prompts to help a child articulate their responses to fiction: • In what you read today, did the setting or any of the characters remind you of people or characters in your own life? Were any of the situations or events similar to your own life? How were they alike and how were they different? • Does this story or its characters remind you of another story you have read? Does it remind you of a film you’ve seen? How are they alike and how are they different? • If you could change the setting in this story to another, what setting would you choose? Would you change just the time period? Or would you change the place, the season, the actual environment – maybe from poverty to riches? Why would you make those changes? Stuart Gaston-Nash & Helen Carr

21. What resources are available to assist in using Reading Journals? • If you could change the life or lives of the characters in the book you are reading to make their lives more like those of any other character, whose lives would you change? How would you change their lives? Why did you choose to change the life of that person or those people? • If you were to put this story into your own life, in the area where you live, around the people and friends that you know, how would the story have to change? How would the people change? Would the setting have to change? Why would these changes have to take place? • Sometimes we are pulled towards one or two characters in the story. We identify with them or feel sympathy for them. With which characters do you identify in the book, and why do you believe you identify with them? Stuart Gaston-Nash & Helen Carr

22. What resources are available to assist in using Reading Journals? • Sometimes when we read, certain words or phrases or images stand out. Maybe they are words or phrases that make an impression because of their sound, or maybe the meaning or image they make strikes us? Sometimes we find words or expressions we just do not understand. Share those that you have come across and describe why you listed them. • Now that you are this far into the story, what do you look forward to learning next? What conflicts or problems do you think the characters will face? What qualities of your character (honest, loyal, cruel, dishonest, angry, vengeful) will affect how the character handles the problems and conflicts s/he encounters? • If you could ask any character a question, what would you ask? If you could ask the author a question, what might that be? Explain why you chose these questions. Stuart Gaston-Nash & Helen Carr

23. What resources are available to assist in using Reading Journals? • In what you read today, what surprised you? Explain how this will affect the story or how it changed your thinking about the story. • What do you wish to learn when you read the next part? What do you hope will happen in the story or to the characters? Why do you wish for that happen? • Are you puzzled or confused about anything in the story? What is it that confuses you, and why is it confusing? • It is not unusual to wish that our live were more like the lives of characters in stories. How would you change your own real life to be more like the world of your story? • Why do you think the author wrote this story? Where did s/he get the idea or the characters? What message do you think that the author is trying to share? Stuart Gaston-Nash & Helen Carr

24. What resources are available to assist in using Reading Journals? • Secondly, some suggested prompts to help a child articulate their responses to non-fiction: • What did you learn from your reading that you did not know before? What surprised you? Explain why it surprised you. • From your reading, were any questions that you had answered by what you read? List the questions you had and the answers you came up with from the reading. Are you satisfied with what you learned, with these answers? • Did you come across a problem in your reading that you had not considered before? What was the problem? Could you solve it? If so, how? If not, how could you? • Are any of the real life situations or people that you read about similar to situations that you have experienced before in life? How were they similar or different? Stuart Gaston-Nash & Helen Carr

25. What resources are available to assist in using Reading Journals? • Next, a list of opening sentences that could be useful for a child in starting their journal response: • I like/dislike this idea because… • This character reminds me of someone I know because… • This character reminds me of myself because… • This character is like [character name] in [title] because… • I think the setting is important because… • This scene reminds me of a similar scene in… • I like/dislike this writing because… • This section is particularly effective because… • The ideas here remind me of the ideas in [title] because… • This incident reminds me of a similar situation in my own life. It happened when… Stuart Gaston-Nash & Helen Carr

26. What resources are available to assist in using Reading Journals? • Now for some independent reading activities that could lead to work in journals: • Make a list of the words used to describe 3 characters eg. what they looked like, attitudes, personal qualities, etc. • What words would you use to describe two characters in your story? • What do you think a character would do or say to you if s/he met you? • Do you think this story could happen in real life? Why? • Write a letter to a character in this story telling him/her what you think of the way s/he treats people. • Whom do you not like in this story? Explain why. • Describe the person in this story that you feel most like? Stuart Gaston-Nash & Helen Carr

27. What resources are available to assist in using Reading Journals? • Make a list of six places mentioned in the story and describe each one. • You are a TV reporter. What shots of places would you show? How would you describe each shot? • What do you think were the best words used to describe a place in this story? Explain why. • What place in the story seemed most real to you? Why? • What places in this story would you most like to live in or visit? • Describe how two different places in the story make you feel? • Collect and organise information about the objects in your story eg. who owns them, where you would find them. • Write a recommendation of the book for a friend. What will you say to encourage them to read it? Stuart Gaston-Nash & Helen Carr

28. What resources are available to assist in using Reading Journals? • What use did people in the story make of things or objects? • Make a book jacket for the story using pictures or sketches of things in the story. • List the action words used to describe three important events in this story. • Put the events in this story into a flow diagram showing the order in which they happened. • What three events in this story do you think are most like real life? Why? • Write a letter to a character telling him what you think of his opinions. • Who in this story makes you feel angry or jealous? Why? • Plot a graph that represents how you felt about different sections of the story? How and why does the line change? Stuart Gaston-Nash & Helen Carr

29. What resources are available to assist in using Reading Journals? • Write an imagined biography of one of the characters. • Write an account of what you might have done if you were in one of the character’s predicament. • Construct a stage and setting for a scene in the book. • Write a diary that might have been kept by a main character. • Organise interviews of people assigned to roles from the story. • Role-play the author, defending the book against critics on radio. • Give a sales pitch for the book to the class. • Write a letter to the author telling him/her why you enjoyed the book. Stuart Gaston-Nash & Helen Carr

30. What resources are available to assist in using Reading Journals? • Write about a true-to-life incident similar to one in the story. • Write as one of the characters many years after the incidents in the novel. • Write an imagined dialogue between characters in two books. • Compare characters faced with similar problems in different books. • Research fact from fiction in an historical novel. • Discuss the effect of setting on the behaviour and attitudes of the character. • You are a psychologist offering advice to the main character. Tell what the problem is and what advice you would give. • Create a greeting card that one character might send to another. Tell why it would be sent and the receiver’s reaction. Stuart Gaston-Nash & Helen Carr

31. What resources are available to assist in using Reading Journals? • Write an unsigned letter from the point of view of a character, and have the rest of the class work out which character it is. • Choose a scene from your book and rewrite it as if it took place two hundred years in the past. • You are a millionaire suffering from a fatal illness. You are trying to decide what to do with your money. Tell which character you would leave your money to and why. • Write a newspaper report of an incident as it might have appeared in a newspaper in the time and culture of the novel. • You are a private detective assigned to follow the main character. Write a report on his or her activities over one period of time. Tell where s/he went, whom s/he saw, and what s/he did. Draw conclusions about the character’s motives, values and lifestyle. Stuart Gaston-Nash & Helen Carr

32. What resources are available to assist in using Reading Journals? • There are of course many commercially produced resources available… • But teachers have known that creativity should be at the centre of any classroom’s curriculum and resources for a long time… Use the title to predict what you think the book will be about. Discover the main character - how will he or she change through the book? Look at the front cover - what clues does it give you about the book? Why is the book called what it is? Read the blurb and predict how the story will continue. Look at the chapter index and predict what some will be about. Read the opening - how will it and the ending be cohesive? Read the first chapter and then decide what will happen next. Stuart Gaston-Nash & Helen Carr

33. What resources are available to assist in using Reading Journals? • There are of course many commercially produced resources available… • But teachers have known that creativity should be at the centre of any classroom’s curriculum and resources for a long time… Use the title to predict what you think the book will be about. Discover the main character - how will he or she change through the book? Use the title to predict what you think the book will be about. Look at the front cover - what clues does it give you about the book? Why is the book called what it is? Read the blurb and predict how the story will continue. Look at the chapter index and predict what some will be about. Read the opening - how will it and the ending be cohesive? Read the first chapter and then decide what will happen next. Stuart Gaston-Nash & Helen Carr

34. The end • Hopefully, if we have achieved our aims, we have provided you with lot of ways to use Reading Journals in the classroom. • Thanks for listening! Stuart Gaston-Nash & Helen Carr