What is the purpose of a reading response journal?

The purpose of a reading response journal is fundamentally to promote critical thinking through student reflections. This type of journal encourages students to engage deeply with the texts they read, allowing them to explore their thoughts, feelings, and interpretations. Rather than merely summarizing the content, students reflect on characters, themes, and personal connections, fostering a more profound understanding of the material. This reflective practice helps develop higher-order thinking skills, as students analyze, evaluate, and synthesize their ideas about what they’ve read.

In contrast, while summarizing texts, providing feedback to parents, or tracking the number of books read can all be valuable activities, they do not capture the primary educational goal of enhancing students' critical engagement with literature. A reading response journal focuses specifically on nurturing thoughtful responses and encouraging personal connections to reading, which is crucial for developing literacy and comprehension skills.