Journals

In Nancie Atwell's "In the Middle," chapter 8 talks about "Responding to Readers and Reading." I just love her approach on this. Basically, she keeps journals that the students keep up with on their current readings and writings. Atwell has students exchange "letters" that are written in the journals both to herself and to the students' peers. In reading some of the sample letters, the students referred to different works, so I assume that this type of assignment works well to keep the teacher in touch with all the variety of stories. I also think it is a good idea to have the student express their feelings about what they've read through writing because not only does it assess that they are keeping up with reading, but it helps them practice their writing skills.

Now, the way that Atwell responds to her students varies from person to person. It's not like she has a rubric to grade the students. On page 283, she says that "The letters I write to my kids about their reading are personal and contextual: what I say in my half of the dialogue comes from my knowledge of how a student reads and thinks, of what a student understands or needs to know." Her responses either "affirm, challenge or extend a reader's response."
So for those students who don't have such a thoughtful response, Atwell gives them the chance to elaborate through this discussion method. I just love this idea and I think it would be great to go along with independent reading or even literature circles.