[morahsharon]

In the past I have had the students write to me in their Reading Response Journal and I would write back. It was very time consuming! Any ideas about how to implement a response journal?
Thanks for your help!

[NJ Teacher]

I assign my journals as homework. What helped me was to have the kids assigned a specific day of the week to turn theirs in, so that I am only looking at 5 or so over a 4 day period. I bought those 10 cent spiral notebooks from Target that have different colored covers. Students with a red cover would be due Tuesday, green students on Wednesday, purple students on Thursday, and blue students on Friday. I have also used different stickers to assign groups. Students may write in their journals any day of the week, but I only collect that specific group on the day it's due. What I did find hard to keep track of was the year I tried in-class book letters as part of Reading Workshop as part of books they were reading in class. Responding to lit. group books, plus doing book letters on independent reading, plus doing the reading assignments was too much for my class. This year, I may tweak that by having them do a short response after they read.

[mrs_b_from_nc]

I too was overwhelmed last year. So this year, I'm incorporating them into my indep. reading conferences. The kids will write their letter, I'll read it during conferences, then we'll discuss it. I'm also thinking that this way I can guide them in the direction I want them to go - by helping them choose their next letter topic, pointing out problems in grammar, spelling, etc. as needed.

So I'll be seeing about 5 kids per day for conferences and reading 5 letters - and discussing it right then as opposed to having to write back to everyone. I'll still try to do that - maybe once a month or so.

[morahsharon]

Thank you! I like the schedule idea.

My students write in their journals each day as morning work. (I usually have around 25 students each year.) I choose 5 student a day that I read and respond. That way I read/respond to every child's journal at least once a week. The kids never know when they will be chosen and sometimes I will pick the same student 2 days in a row so they don't get lazy if I have already looked at theirs the day before. I just make it a point to collect all of them by the end of the week. I use my clipboard as a check-off sheet so I don't miss anyone. I have done this for the past 4 years and it works well for me.

[teachil]

what kind of letter format do you have them follow? I did a letter reading response notebook last year and I had them follow a specific format. For example 1st paragraph was to tell me the title, author, and summary of the story/book they read. 2nd paragraph was to tell me about any strategies they used while reading the book and any vocabulary that they struggled with. 3rd paragraph was to tell me if they would recommend this book to a friend and why (and they had to go beyond because it was funny) and in this part they were also able to ask me any questions.
I created a sample letter and explanation letter for parents so that they knew what was expected. I also created a rubric to go with this that went home as well so that students knew what they needed to have in order to receive a certain grade. I think if I do this again I would create an alternative rubric for students that need modifications.

I too had them due different days so they weren't all turning them in the same day. i would read them and write back to them, either asking them to further explain something or compliment something well they did.

I was debating on whether to do that again this year because they really did do a great job on it and some improvement with comprehension and strategy use, but was just seeing what other ways letter response to readins have been done.

Thanks