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 __________________________________ . 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 ________________ 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 ) T. Izydorczak Page 1 2/16/2016 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, _______________________________ . 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 ______________________________ . T. Izydorczak Page 2 2/16/2016 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, __________________________________. T. Izydorczak Page 3 2/16/2016