Reading Migration Updates and Collecting Our Thoughts
How to Use This "Collecting My Thoughts" Journal Page in Your Classroom
Journaling helps students reflect on information they read. Writing also prepares them for thoughtful small group or whole class discussions. Read Journey North Migration Update together as a class. Using this journal page, invite students to revisit the information in small groups or independently and "collect their thoughts."
In the left-hand column of the journal page, students write an excerpt from the Migration Update. The excerpt should be one that sparked thought! You may also ask them to choose an excerpt as a discussion point—a sentence or paragraph that they would like the class to talk about together.
In the right-hand column of the page, students write their thoughts about the excerpts selected. Encourage them to include discoveries, opinions, questions, predictions, and connections.
For students who are new to journaling and reflective response, use questions to facilitate their work:
- Which part of Today's News surprised you?
- What information can we use to make predictions about what might happen next week?
- Which sentences or paragraphs made you think about new questions?
Sentence starters are also a way to help students collect their thoughts:
- I discovered...
- I think...
- I noticed...
- I predict that...
- This sentence reminded me about a time when I...
When students have collected their thoughts on journal pages, have them share their reflections in small groups or with the whole class. Invite students to collect and collate journal pages into a booklet throughout the season. You may also choose to use journal pages to assess students' understanding. Have students turn them in to youperiodically. Read their reflections and acknowledge their thinking: use post-it notes to give students feedback without writing on their journal pages.
