Provide prompts for the middle school students to respond to. Make the prompts thought-provoking to encourage the students to think beyond the basic facts and connect the themes to larger issues. For instance, ask "Would Precious have experienced the same childhood if she was born white instead of African-American?" This prompt asks students to think about race and how it intersects with socioeconomic status. In addition, this prompt doesn't have a clear right or wrong answer, which makes it difficult for the student to respond with what they believe you want to hear.
Each week, copy some of the more relevant or thought-provoking student passages and share some of them without revealing the author. Use these statements to start a discussion. This will encourage the students to share their opinions and their own journal writing, which will make the journals more useful to them. In this way, the journals become a sounding board, allowing them to jot down their impressions and thoughts before they share them in class. Keep the overt sharing volunteer, however, or students may find the journal writing threatening rather than useful.
Whenever possible, connect the journal prompts to the middle school students' lives. For example, ask them what they might have done differently if they were the main character, or if they faced a similar situation in their own lives and how they responded. When students connect the writing to their own experiences, it becomes more relevant and important to them. This primes the middle school students for high school reading and beyond, when the writing does not have a clear connection to their lives, leaving them to find meaning in the work on their own.
Identify errors in the students' journals, but do not penalize them for errors in grammar and syntax. Middle school students are not yet skilled enough with writing to consider error and correctness while simultaneously sharing their thoughts. The journal should be a place to record their ideas without feeling threatened, and taking points off for error can reduce the journal's usefulness. Instead, comment on patterns of error but spend the majority of your time engaging with the student's thoughts. Make the comments as supportive as possible to help validate the student's thoughts, which will encourage her to share.