Reading Journal Sentence Starters
After reading, use one or more of the following sentence starters to begin your journal
response. Follow up these sentences with examples from your reading to develop your
ideas/insights. You may combine any of these topics you wish (as well as ideas of your
own) to complete a well-developed, thoughtful response.
Character
1. _______________ is my favorite character in ________________ because
_____________________________________________________________________.
For example, _________________________________________________________ .
2. In _____________ , I can really relate to ____________ because______________ .
This makes me think of _______________ because __________________________ .
3. I can’t stand __________________ from ____________ because he/she _________ .
If I were ______________ I would ______________ . The author, ________ , really
makes ___________________ seem ______________ by __________________
___________________________________.
4. If I could be any character in __________, I would be ______________ because
___________________ . However, I would ______________ instead of ____________ .
5. _____________ , the author of _____________ , has given the main character some
qualities I would like to develop in myself. For example, _________
_________________________________. I would like these qualities because
__________________________________ .
6. One of the most dynamic characters in _____________ is ______________ .
One major change he/she undergoes is __________________________________. At the
beginning, he/she is _______________________________, but later on _____________
________________________ because _______________________________________ .
Title/Cover
1. ______________ is a ____________ title for this book because____________ . For
example ________________________
2. If I had written __________ I would have called it _____________ . This would be a
much better title because _______________ . For example ________________
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3. On the cover of ____________ , I noticed ____________ , ________________ , and
_________________ . This is supposed to represent _________________ . If I had
designed the cover I would have __________ ___________________because _________
___________________________________
(Feel free to draw it )
Finishing a book
1. ______________ was a ____________ book because ______________________ .
I especially liked the way the author ____________________ . For example
________________________________ . I wish he/she would have _____________
though because __________________ .
2. I thought the ending of _____________ was ___________ because _________ .
If I could change it, I would ____________________________________________ .
This would make the book better because ________________________________ .
3. What a horrible ending--the book left me feeling like there was more to tell . I feel
like the author should have gone on to say ________________________ . If I had
written it, I would have also ____________
___________________________________ .
4. After reading this book, I would like to read other books by _______________
because _____________________ . For example, _______________
_______________________ . One more thing _________________________ .
Setting/tone
1. The tone of ___________________ is ______________ right now. Some words that
the author uses to show this are ___________ , _______________ , __________ , and
___________________ . I think he/she is trying to create this mood because
_________________________________ .
2. As I was reading, I noticed that this story is taking place ___________________ .
This is significant because _________________________________ . Otherwise,
_______________________________ .
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Other
1. I’m confused. I didn’t understand what was going on when __________ because
_______________ . I think ________________ , but I’m not sure. Some words that I
don’t understand are _____________________________ . While I read next time, I’m
going to look for ______________________________ .
2. While I was reading today, the book made me think of __________________ because
___________________________ . This is interesting because _________________
_____________________ . I wonder _____________________________ .
3. As I was reading today, I started to feel _______________ . I think this was because
_____________________ ______________ __________________________________ .
As I was reading, I noticed _____________________ . For example,
_____________________________ .
4. I think this author has a strong opinion about _________________ . I realized this
when ________________________ . Looking back, she/he also ______________ . This
makes me think ___________________
_______________________ . In my opinion, __________________________________.
C. Trovall
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