All of this is never enough as students are usually trained to write summaries, and they are pretty good at that already. I have to guide them to move away from the summarizing and start to respond to what they read by including their thoughts and feelings. I try to read and score 1-2 of their entries weekly or bi-weekly. I ask them to only put one response on a page that way I have room to score them and leave feedback. Generally the first few weeks I am putting the same comment that goes something like, "This is a good summary, but I want you to respond to what you read. Try using the prompts at the front of your notebook." After a bit of practice they get it.
Here are a couple of the first ones I have scored this year and you can get an idea of the range (although I have very few that score a 3 or 4 the first couple of weeks).

Do you have a rubric you could share for the self-assessment?
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking of incorporating a reader response journal to my reading workshop. (it's still in the planning stages). BTW, I love your genre bulletin board. I'm your newest follower, I look forward to learning from you. Best of luck this school year.
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