Name: _______________________________

GUIDELINES FOR READING JOURNALS

In your Reading Journals, you will rotate through three different ways of showing
a reaction to what you have read during SSR (Sustained Silent Reading). You will
be required to write in your journal each time it is assigned and you will have to
do this writing if you are absent. Your completed Reading Journals are worth 40%
of your reading mark.

First Journal Style (Response)

Choose an element of response writing that you find in your text (overall
message, alliteration, text to text connection, etc.). Identify where it is in the text.
Provide a quotation as an example. Expand on it by explaining why the author
used it, why it is important or how you made a connection. Use the 3Es in your
journal.

Second Journal Style (Creative Writing or Fan Fiction)

Choose an element of what you read today (a setting, a rising action of the plot, a
dialogue, a character’s conflict, etc.) Create an entirely new piece of writing that
could be used in your book. Try to practice using the style of the author. Try to
write creatively with descriptive vocabulary. Try to rewrite a scene the way you
would have liked to read it.

Third Journal Style (Free Reaction)

In this journal entry you are free to react to what you have read today. Select a
quotation for focus. How did you feel while you read this part? What did you
think? How did you react? What was important to you?