In my past work with schools, I have asked students to read for 30 minutes, including reading a non-fiction news article once a week and working towards their personalized goal once a week, and write daily reflections to document their experiences over the course of the year.
Daily Reflections
I use the following sentence frames to encourage reflection during the year. A template for students to copy and paste into their homework is available here.
My favorite thing about about today was _____.
The most important thing I learned today was _____.
The thing I was most thankful for today was _____.
The book reading today was _____.
Each month throughout the year, students review their reflections and write about the most important events or Monthly Reflections on their digital portfolios.