Reading response journals can be a great way of helping students of all reading abilities think about the things that happen in a story they are reading.  I like to use a spiral binder for this purpose. When students start a new text, they write the details such as title, author, publication date and so forth at the top of a new page.  They then divide the page into 3 columns with 1 small and 2 larger columns. The first column will contain the page or pages where they read this information, the second column will be “the event” or a short description of what happened in this section of the text, with the third column labeled, “My Reaction to This.”  To introduce journaling to your students, model your thinking aloud for a short passage and demonstrate how to record thoughts and reactions to the text.  In addition to being a great tool to get students thinking more deeply about what is happening in the story, journaling helps students improve comprehension and participate in discussions about the text after reading.