Make 2: The Rewards of Journaling

As I have mentioned before, I absolutely loved the series book I chose which was, Keena Ford. This book relates to the classroom setting in the way Keena writes about her class and family experiences. For this make I instantly knew I wanted to recreate “the journal” but in a unique way. My plan was this: I will read aloud, as Donalyn Miller emphasizes, and the students will have pre-stated phrases that they will journal about. However, my spin on this is that I will only read maybe 5-10 pages per day(maybe less maybe more) and I will pick a main point or situation that occurred and create the phrase that the students will write about based on what happened in those few pages. By doing this, the students will not feel the pressure of having to listen to a long read aloud and feel stress about remembering important events that they will be quizzed on. Instead, the students will create a text to world connection which will hopefully instill positive reading habits for future years to come. I will also emphasize that the students can draw instead of write in their journal. Symbols, pictures, sentences are all okay. Hopefully this will be a positive experience that will take no more than 20 minutes but will be a relaxing and enjoyable experience in their school day.