Thoughtful Logs

I began to use Thoughtful Logs last year in first grade as a part of our new reading curriculum, Partnerships in Comprehensive Literacy: The Arkansas Model.  Last week, we launched this tool in our classroom.  It is a tabbed composition notebook that allows students to record their thoughts about literacy work and independent reading in the classroom.  This is what it looks like in our room this year:

Each Thoughtful Log is set up the same - with four tabs as pictured above: My Thoughts, Genre Learning, Powerful Words and Phrases, and Word Work.  We have started work in two of these tabs so far - My Thoughts and Genre Learning.  The other tabs will be launched soon.

Our first Thoughtful Log entry occured during our shared read aloud time with Mrs. G.  The lesson was devoted to the reading comprehension strategy of making connections.  Students took their Thoughtful Log to the library with the prompt (picture to the right) already pasted in and a pencil in hand.  Then, instead of just listening to the story and discussing their connections, they were able to connect their reading with some writing about The Relatives Came and what it meant to them.  We will continue to do this activity during read aloud time to keep the kids engaged and use the time meaningfully.

In other instances we will use the Thoughtful Log similarly during classroom time.  Throughout the course of the year, students will learn how to record their reactions to texts in large groups, small groups, and independently.

Another way that we have used the Thoughtful Log this year is by recording our genre learning.  During the first quarter we are focusing our study on fiction - particularly realistic and fantasy fiction.  So far, we have created anchor charts for both sub-genres, have read various texts in each genre, and have independently explored them.  The Thoughtful Log allows us to document this learning.  Below you will see our first two pages in the Genre Learning tab.  They have printed photos of the genre anchor charts from our classroom.  This enables the student to have a resource readily available to them about a certain genre at all times - even when the anchor charts come down off the walls to make way for new ones.

This final photo displays a typical writing prompt that we will use in our Thoughtful Logs during the year.  I can't wait to continue exploring this classroom resources with the kiddos.  I am very excited to see their responses to the fantastic literature that we will be studying, as well as to have a log that records their writing growth over the year!