Reflection Journal on Reading
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What you will learn
- 1Write a reflection journal looking back on a full year of reading
- 2Identify what you can do now, your strengths, and your challenges
- 3Set two or three specific goals to carry into Grade 3
Mini Lesson
You have reached the final lesson of Grade 2 Reading. That means you have worked through 40 lessons — five full units of skills, stories, and projects. Before you move on to Grade 3, it is worth pausing to look back at everything you have learned and to celebrate how far you have come.
What is a reflection journal?
- A reflection journal is a piece of writing where you think honestly about your own learning — what went well, what was hard, and what you want to work on next.
- A reflection is not a test — there are no right or wrong answers. It is a private, honest conversation with yourself on paper.
- Good readers reflect regularly. Knowing your own strengths and gaps makes you a smarter, more careful reader.
What you have covered this year
- Unit A — Phonics and Word Power: vowel teams, prefixes, suffixes, context clues, word families.
- Unit B — Understanding Stories: main idea, story order, characters, cause and effect, prediction, moral, comparison, book review.
- Unit C — Reading for Information: nonfiction texts, charts, diagrams, facts vs. opinions, inventors, Earth and space, machines.
- Unit D — Reading with Expression: fluency, punctuation response, dialogue, poems, partner reading, questioning, retelling.
- Unit E — Reading Projects: author poster, world stories, reading corner, illustration, reading log, traditional story, showcase, and this reflection.
How to write a strong reflection
- Be specific — instead of "I got better at reading," write "I can now read a poem aloud with rhythm and match my voice to the punctuation."
- Be honest — it is fine to name a skill that is still challenging. Recognizing it is the first step to improving it.
- Be forward-looking — the most important part of a reflection is your goals for next year. Make them SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.
Words to know
Reflection journal
A piece of writing where a reader thinks honestly about their own learning — strengths, challenges, and goals
e.g. At the end of Grade 2, she wrote a reflection journal about her reading year.
Growth
The progress a reader has made over time — skills and confidence gained
e.g. Her biggest growth was reading with expression.
Challenge
A skill that is still hard — something to keep practicing
e.g. Reading long nonfiction paragraphs is still a challenge for me.
SMART goal
A goal that is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound
e.g. "I will read for 20 minutes every day" is a SMART goal.
Ask yourself: "What can I do now as a reader that I could not do at the start of Grade 2? What am I most proud of? What will I work hardest on in Grade 3?"
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