Reading Response Journal Freebie – Letters to the Author

Reading Response Journals are just perfect for working on just about every reading and writing objective. One of my favorite ways for students to respond is through writing a letter to the author.

Because using Reading Response Journals is such a versatile and fun way to practice so many valuable skills, they truly are one of my top GO TO STRATEGIES!

One of the ways that I use the response journals to practice comprehension and higher level thinking is to write letters to the author. Students are able to incorporate reading and thinking skills with writing for better learning!

There are so many ways to do it, but I like to have my students write all of the letters in one general area. This works especially well if you are reading a chapter book.

Here are some ideas for putting all the letters to the author in one general area:

• Designate a folder with brads, and have your students write the letters on notebook paper. Have your students decorate the front and label the folder as LETTERS TO THE AUTHOR.
• Have students bring in an extra composition book that is used only for the letters.
• Have a spiral notebook to use in the same way as above.

I have a free resource for you that includes topicss for writing to the author in both fiction and nonfiction text. You will want to go through the questions and decide which ones you will use with the specific genre you are using.

Here are a few Letters to the Author – Reading Response Journal Topics for your students to use:

• The most memorable thing about your book…
• If I wrote the book, I would change…
• One part that was challenging for me was…
• I noticed that you built suspense by…
• Your book was a good fit for me because…
• The main character from your book reminded me of…
• An important question I have about the main character is…
• I believe I know why you chose the title of the book…
• What surprised me the most about the text was…
• I noticed that the setting of your book…
• While reading your text, I was feeling…
• While reading your text, I figured out that…
• The message of your text..
• Your book made me think…
• I noticed the features…

To read more and grab your Reading Response Journal FREEBIE – Letters to the Author, just click here.

Best wishes!

Jen Bradshaw from TeacherKarma.com

NOTE: This post was originally posted on TeacherKarma.com