This year I decided to create Interactive Reading Journals with my class. I had seen similar ideas before but none of them seemed to be exactly what I was looking for, so I decided to start creating pages on my own. So far, we are in our third week of school and my students LOVE them. They like the idea of cutting and gluing (of course…who wouldn’t) and their written responses are getting better and better each day. I like that I can provide them with a template (especially at the beginning of the year) and they also have information that they can look back on as the school year progresses. Some of the pages have flaps that flip up and the kids write under them.
For this activity, we did a T-Chart for Realism vs Fantasy which was our skill for the story “If You Made a Million.” I had my students use a Scholastic book order to cut out examples of realism and fantasy for their charts. They glued the pieces into their notebooks and they came out great. The conversation that went on while they worked was wonderful! The big hang up was “Diary of a Wimpy Kid.” The kids initially thought it was fantasy, but they talked through it and finally decided that it was in fact realism. Ahhhhh I love those moments as a teacher! If you are interested in trying an Interactive Reading Journal/Notebook, you can get mine at my TpT store. I promise you won’t be disappointed!
