These are journaling topics I've provided for my students. As I answer them here in GrammarQueen's blog, I'll embolden them.
~Does the book/poem answer any questions or solve any problems you have faced? Which ones? Why?
~How does the setting compare to your own surroundings?
~Did the poem add anything to your particular store of facts, information, or images? Did it give you a greater understanding or enjoyment of any particular art, science, or other field of activity?
~Have you ever met the same problem in newspaper, motion pictures, or in another story? Describe.
~How does the poem increase our understanding of the relations between men and women, parents and children, brothers and sisters, friends, young and old, employers and employees, leaders and followers, city and country, etc.?
~Do you have more sympathy for and understanding of the thoughts and feelings of people who are not exactly like you and of people you once misunderstood?
~What inspired the author to write this poem? What mood was he or she in at the time?
~What was your favorite symbol from this poem and why?
~Do you agree with the author’s message/theme/assumptions about reality?
~When you think of reality, what comes to your mind first?
~What is the most beautiful thing about people?
~What is the most sacred thing you know?
~What is the most overwhelming thing you know? The thing that makes you feel most humble?
~What is the greatest value that guides your life?
~If you could smash one thing, and only one thing, what would it be?
~For what do you think you would lay down your life?
~What do you feel when you stand on the shore of an ocean?
~How would you symbolize the human soul? (Examples: a rose, a sunset, a well.)
~What emotion is strongest in you?
~What is the most beautiful thing you have seen?
~What makes you feel most secure?
~When you think of soft green grass, what do you think of?
~What is your greatest fear?
~What do you love the most?
~What person would you follow the farthest? (Don’t answer Jesus. He’s not physically here.)
~How do you pray? (Journal, out loud, silently, kneeling, standing, etc.)
~When do you pray? What moves you to prayer?
~What passage of Scripture means most to you?
~What passage of Scripture do you not understand?
~What concept do you hold most basic to you as a person?
~What area of conversation do you find hardest to talk about?
~What is love?
~What rights does a baby have?
~What historical event of your own memory have you internalized the most?
~What historical event of your own memory has appalled you the most?
~Do you think that all men and women are fundamentally alike at the same basic level of their humanness?
~Hope is the key to an alive person. How would you define hope? What examples can you give?
~When do you feel most alone?
~Of all the symbols you know, which symbol means the most to you?
~What illusion was or is part of your life?
~What is it like to lose illusions?
~What do you hold to that others think is an illusion? How does that make you feel?
~What is your biggest worry?
~What flame (item) consumed you today—used up your life today?
~When do you die a little?
~When is your imagination most alive? What place?
~When do you feel most productive?
~Who has the hardest task today? Parent, child, baby, teacher, student, husband, wife, etc.
~When will you die?
~How much emotional satisfaction do you get out of music?
~Should a man ever cry?
~When do you feel most free?
~When do you feel the most joy?
~An old pine tree teaches wisdom, and a wild birch is crying out truth. (Interpret.)
~If you do not get it from yourself, where will you go for it? (Interpret.)
~“A nation without vision will perish.” (From Proverbs, interpret.)
~What wisdom do you seek? What understanding do you gain? (From Proverbs 2)
~What are you doing to hide God’s word in your heart?
~What would you like to be like at the age of 75?
~What 10 things would you like to do before you die? Explain as much as necessary.
~What topographical feature do you most like to visit/spend time around? (Mountains, lakes, rivers, ponds, prairie, ocean, etc.)
~What question would you like to have added to this list?