Every year I try to find the best way for my students to organize their reading material. I have tried folders, binders, multiple journals for different purposes, single journals tabbed with different sections, book bags, book bins... You name it, I've tried it.
I was searching for the most effective way to enable my students to utilize their resources and reference their completed work throughout the year. I also wanted an efficient way to give feedback to my students without endlessly searching through journals, binders, or folders. Last year, I finally came up with a system that worked well both for my students and for me: a reading response journal used with a binder to keep reading materials organized and accessible.
Each of my students has one binder and one reading response journal. The reading response journal is used for my students' literature circle/book club notes. My students meet once a week with their literature circle group to discuss the book they have all chosen to read. The work in the journal varies from week to week, but typically includes notes about the book, thoughts and wonderings, and questions for the group. Some weeks, depending on what we are working on in class, I may assign a prompt that I would like the students to complete in order to discuss it with the group. A reading response journal also serves as a wonderful collection or keepsake of the books that students read during the school year. I always encourage my students to save their reading response journals to refer to in later years.
My students' reading binder is divided into six sections: Resources; Notes; Prompts; Articles; Reading Logs and Other.
Resources: These are reference materials my students can use as a guide throughout the year. This includes theme lists, character trait charts, mood words, and so on.
Notes: This section includes any notes we have taken on a text. It also includes graphic organizers we have used with a text.
Prompts: These are open-ended questions that I ask my students about a piece of literature. Almost all the prompts are graded and have written feedback for the student to reflect on.
Articles: The CCSS require that 50% fiction material and 50% nonfiction material be used with students, so I provide my students with a variety of nonfiction articles to read. I try to correlate my nonfiction articles with topics being studied across the curriculum. Often, we refer back to these articles, so it is helpful to have them available in a binder for further reference when needed.
Reading Logs: I like for my students to have a list of books that they have read during the course of the year. I also use the logs to make sure my students are reading a variety of genres and that they are reading at least FIVE nights a week.
Other: Every binder needs a miscellaneous section for all that stuff that just doesn't fit anywhere else. This section might include things like poems, plays, or song lyrics.