What is a Journal Entry?

Example: 1^st Grade Journal Entry

Journal Entries are Reflections of your Child’s Reading Comprehension 

Why write an entry?

Students provide evidence during and after reading.  Writing entries challenge your child’s thinking.  Providing evidence or proof of thinking and reasoning is a learning standard that crosses curriculum in 1^st grade and all grades.

How does this help my child?

Journal entries are graphic organizers containing your child’s thinking.  We are able to assess their understanding or comprehension of not only the fiction or nonfiction text they are reading, but their grasp of phonics (sound/letter match) by analyzing their inventive spelling.  I personally require journal entries because they are authentic and unique expressions from your child that supports comprehension! 

Why is drawing important?

Every entry should have an illustration.  At this age, students are encouraged to read the pictures first.  The illustrations in fiction text scaffold the child as they read.  Just as a construction worker uses scaffolding while working on tall buildings, the pictures or illustrations provide that same support for our beginning readers.  When your child starts with a picture, they provide so many details.  The details that are in their illustration may not easily translate in their writing; therefore, your child can use their own illustration as support for their writing.  Students are encouraged to make mental images.  Your child’s ability to visualize or make mental images will increase their comprehension of any text they read.  Drawing supports comprehension.

What is genre?

Genre is the type of literature.  Fiction or nonfiction are the 2 major types of genre.  However, there are subcategories of genre.  In 1^st grade, we continue what students have learned in kindergarten.  Lumping books under fiction or nonfiction categories is just the beginning!  We are beginning to learn about the subcategories. 

Fiction Text	Nonfiction Text
Realistic Fiction- Seems real	Expository
Fantasy Fiction	Informational
Fairy Tales	Biographies
Fables	Autobiographies
Graphic Novels/Comics	Newspaper/Magazine Articles

Fiction: Has story elements.  Characters (who), setting (where), plot(problem and solution) and a beginning, middle and end.  Fiction comes from the author’s imagination.  Some fiction seems real, but the events did not really happen.  Typically, if I wanted entertainment, I would choose a fiction text.

Nonfiction: Is factual or real. Nonfiction focuses on one topic and provides information. Nonfiction texts can have text features.  If I want to learn about a certain topic, I would choose a nonfiction text.
Text Features: 

• Captions: Help you better understand a picture or photograph
• Glossary: Helps you define words that are in the book
• Graphics: Charts, graphs, or cutaways are used to help you understand what the author is trying to tell you
• Illustrations/Photographs: Help you to know exactly what something looks like
• Index: This is an alphabetical list of ideas that are in the book. It tells you what page the idea is on.
• Labels: These help you identify a picture or a photograph and its parts
• Maps: help you to understand where places are in the world
• Special Print: When a word is bold, in italics, or underlined, it is an important word for you to know
• Subtitles: These headings help you identify what the next section will be about
• Table of Contents: Helps you identify key topics in the book in the order they are presented

Fiction vs. Nonfiction:

Early readers should have a robust reading life!  While fiction stories primarily entertain, nonfiction texts provide background knowledge for future learning.  Reading a nonfiction text allows your child to exposure and hopefully an understanding of vocabulary that is not usually in our everyday family discussions.  Children truly enjoy reading nonfiction texts and researching nonfiction topics.  Reading nonfiction texts to your child helps build background knowledge or schema.  Provide opportunities for your child to read both fiction and nonfiction texts.  In addition, reading books aloud to your child above their independent reading level improves comprehension because the child’s vocabulary increases due to exposure.