Writing, Thinking, Learning:  How to Teach Response toLiterature Through Informal Writing-to-Learn

 Tracie Lavarnway

  

Many students, most likely because of their learned expectations about school, have trouble retrieving their most reflective self while they feel an audience looking over their shoulder.  The

notebook gave them a way to bring the writing to the site of their thinking, rather than forcing them to summon up all their

thoughtfulness in the service of a written performance in school.                                                                                                --Randy Bomer  One of the most common directives in English classes all over the country is “Okay, class, get out your journals.”  Marbled composition books, three-ring binders, or spiral notebooks appear on students’ desks and they begin to write.  As teachers, we should always examine how and why we are conducting activities in our classrooms.  Are journals merely used a way to quiet the class and keep the students busy while the teacher attends to other matters?  Or are they meaningful exercises students use to respond to and think about their classroom work?  When I surveyed three sections of eleventh graders about their attitudes toward reading and writing, many students listed journals as one of their favorite in-class writing assignments.  The students said they enjoy journals because they are allowed to “write whatever [they] want” and “don’t have to worry about being wrong.”  Their responses capture the essence of informal writing-to-learn, which frees student writers from concern about the end product of their writing and instead to use to process to formulate their own thoughts and ideas.  We want students to enjoy their work in the classroom and fully engage with it.  In this article, I will discuss using informal

writing to enable our students to work through their own thinking and to respond to literature in a more thoughtful and significant way.  If done effectively, informal writing will have a deeply positive impact on middle and high school students’ ability to construct their own learning in a meaningful way. What is Writing-to-Learn? As secondary English teachers, our most important concern is that our students become active and engaged learners as they sharpen their reading, writing and critical thinking skills.  Writing is a powerful tool that facilitates learning.  Most of us recognize this.  We spend hours assigning and grading student essays that require textual analysis.  However, emphasis on formal writing undermines writing as a process for thinking by focusing students on a finished product.  When students write formally, they use language to convey specific information, formulate an argument, or instruct their reader.  Here, correct form and structure, as well as clear, thought-provoking, and correct content, are emphasized.  Though this remains an important part of a meaningful experience in the English classroom, we should be even more concerned about fostering higher order thinking and problem solving skills.  Writing itself can serve as a conduit to such thinking rather than its product.  Informal writing, free of the pressure to produce a specific end, allows students to use language to shape, order and represent their own experiences to reach a deeper understanding of a text.  Students can use writing as an instrument for inquiring, reflecting, and working through a text and their own thoughts about it.  When our students are able to construct their own knowledge in a meaningful way, rather than viewing knowledge as something external to be acquired, true learning occurs. Traditional Views of Journals           In the past, informal writing has been perceived as less valuable

than formal writing because it was considered less rigorous and intellectually demanding.  The expressive, anecdotal, and subjective nature of journal writing caused educators to dismiss it as ineffectual or a waste of time.  Traditional schooling valued well-organized writing that followed grammatical conventions and could be assessed easily.  A 1993 study found that only about one-third of the secondary teachers surveyed emphasized informal writing as a means of exploring literature.  About half the teachers in grades six through eight said they use at least some journal writing, but less than one quarter of the eleventh and twelfth grade teachers surveyed said they use journals (Anson and Beach 4).            Journals have traditionally been relegated to a peripheral role in the classroom, and are usually only used in one of three ways:  expressive diaries, scientific observation logs, and prewriting exercises (Fulwiler 2).  Though these are legitimate uses for informal writing, limiting journals in this way undermines their potential as significant tools for thinking and learning.  Chris M. Anson and Richard Beach, two leading figures in the field of reader response and informal writing, encourage us to bring journals to the center of the English classroom and make them an integral part of our students’ learning:  “Placed at the center of classroom experience, the academic journal can develop and flourish…and suffer less from the abandonment and growing skepticism that comes with using them in unprincipled ways or placing them at the margins of students’ learning…We are advocating a powerful method for enhancing students’ learning and thinking” (3).  What Journals Accomplish in the Classroom We all want our students to become independent learners and critical thinkers.  Journals foster this ultimate goal and provide other benefits along the way.  See Appendix A for a detailed list of the benefits of journal writing.  Using journals will develop

fluency and build confidence. Students who are accustomed to giving correct answers on short answer or multiple choice tests will have difficulty writing extended prose.  Their lack of experience or anxiety leads to trouble formulating their own ideas and figuring out what they think about a text.  They may view us, their teachers, as the expert possessors of knowledge, while they discount their own ability to formulate knowledge and develop ideas.  The journal assuages these concerns.  Students can practice writing prose at length, free from the constraints of formal writing and the rules of grammar and mechanics.  The informal and spontaneous nature of journals encourages student writers to develop a sense of voice without fear of chastisement about their work being correct, properly formatted, or neat.  Informal response to literature also helps students concentrate.  Chris Anson and Richard Beach, researchers in informal writing, assert that students will be able to “explore an idea in a more sustained way” as they jot down reactions, perceptions, and questions about their reading (25). According to reader-response theory, students navigate various levels of meaning while reading.  Work with reader response reflects an interest in the reading process and relationships between the text and the reader.  Such responses are always layered.  Louise Rosenblatt, a leading figure in the field of reader response, developed the terms “efferent” and “aesthetic” reading.  Catherine Ramsden, a teacher and researcher who has used reader-response in her classroom, explains that these two types “exist at opposite ends of a continuum.”  Efferent reading is focused outward, “toward concepts to be retained, ideas to be tested, actions to be performed” (3).  Aesthetic reading, conversely, is focused inward, with an emphasis on the reader’s relationship to the text and his or her own thoughts and feelings about it.  Both efferent and aesthetic reading may be done with the same text.  Aesthetic reading, though less concerned with details and specific information, requires sustained attention to the text and to its effect on the reader.  The two types work in concert.  For example, Ramsden writes,

“aesthetic reading may be interrupted by a concern about information being acquired [efferent reading] but this only enhances the overall aesthetic reading” (5).  Informal writing, which can be based on efferent or aesthetic response, helps student readers negotiate the various layers of textual response that they experience simultaneously as they read. Though you may have reservations about the expressive nature of journal writing, having your students express emotional reactions to a text is a useful exercise.  Emotional response precipitates analysis.  When students react to a piece of literature, they can then explore that response and reflect on what lead them to react that way.  Such introspection prompts a deeper analysis of the text.  Deidra M. Gammill, a teacher who uses journals extensively, points out that a journal entry extends students’ thinking by becoming an inner dialogue, questioning and reciprocal, in which the students function as both writers and readers simultaneously (43).  The students act through writing, then react to their own writing as readers, which in turn spurs further action--more writing.  Chris Anson and Richard Beach emphasize that this reflection can move from an inner to an outer dialogue when students start to share their responses, respond to others, and include such discussion in subsequent exploration (35). Easily transferable from the personal to the public, informal writing has a positive affect on the social aspects of the classroom.  Journal entries serve as an excellent springboard for class discussion.  Rather than expecting students to produce thoughtful responses to the reading by asking impromptu questions, we should use their work with journals to prepare them to contribute in a meaningful way.  When students have had time to formulate and articulate their thoughts beforehand, everyone can be expected to have some material to share.  Therefore, you will avoid a common difficulty of a text-based discussion: only a few students who more readily think on their feet talk, and the majority remains

silent.  In addition, journal writing enables students to experiment with different voices, which contributes to their exploration of social identities within the classroom. Most student writing functions to tell the teacher what the students know, which generally consists of what the teacher wants them to know.  Rather than prompt our students to find out and articulate what’s in our minds, we should encourage our students to figure out what’s in their own minds.  Informal writing takes the emphasis off what the teacher knows and allows students to formulate their own knowledge and test their beliefs about what they read.  When they can connect their own beliefs and concerns to the material at hand, our students construct their own knowledge.  Often students don’t know what they think about a text until they explore its multiple perspectives and struggle to make sense of its complexities through writing.           Incorporating Journals Into Your English Class Using journals in your classroom is a slow, year-long process.  Students may have had limited experience writing extended prose.  In addition, apprehension about being right, neat, etc, may inhibit students when they initially use journals.  Remember that their former teachers have probably only used informal writing peripherally.  You are going to ask your students to make writing a primary mode of thinking in the classroom.  This can be daunting at first, so expect students to be hesitant or resistant in the beginning.  The key is to use the journal as often as possible; the more students write, the more their thinking and writing will develop. Class discussion is a good way to get started with journals.  Though the writing itself will later springboard into richer and more inclusive discussions, the “thinking on paper” aspect of journal writing is a natural extension of verbal expression and

thinking out loud.  Once a discussion is underway, you can have students stop speaking their thoughts and start writing them.  They can respond in writing to what other students have said or start a new topic.  Though you will shortly begin to add more specific writing prompts to journal activities, students should initially have freedom to write whatever they wish. This will give them a positive experience with informal writing and allow them to focus on the writing process rather than an end-product.  This is the key to writing-to-learn. Journals should never be used in isolation.  When you use lass discussion as a jumping off point for writing, you immediately integrate writing with speaking and listening.  Using speaking, listening, reading and writing together is a crucial aspect of the New York State ELA learning standards.  Journals are an effective way to hit all four aspects of learning with one activity.  Students respond to what they have read in writing and discuss what they’ve written in both large and small groups.  Hearing their classmates’ responses will further their own thinking as they reflect on various points of view and synthesize what they have heard.  Once students have had some time to work in their journals, make sure that they periodically revisit and reread some of their previous entries so that they can reflect on what they have written.  Elizabeth Perritt Lee, a teacher who emphasizes such reflection with her students, says that it enables them to see how their writing and thinking has developed over the term (41).  Encouraging reflection will also play an important role as you develop writing prompts for your students’ journal entries.  When working with a text, it is important to incorporate prompts for each of the three stages of reading: before, during, and after.  Suggestions for devising good writing prompts, with examples, can be found in Appendix B.  The prompts you create will differ depending on where students are in their reading.  Make sure that you foster connections between what students are thinking and

writing about during various stages of reading.  For example, if you are about to begin reading William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, you can ask students to reflect on what qualities a good leader should possess.  Then, you will revisit this theme throughout the novel by prompting them to look at how Ralph or Jack exhibit leadership and how other characters respond.  In post-reading, ask your students to look back at their pre-reading entry on leadership. Which character followed their profile of a good leader?  Has the novel affected their initial thoughts on leadership?  Make sure your prompts are open-ended and give students plenty of room to explore their thinking.  You want to privilege their voices in your classroom while at the same time giving them the benefit or your own experience as a reader, writer and thinker.  You can use a variety of prompts to orchestrate development.  Ruie Jane Pritchard writes, “Certainly we teachers must encourage a student’s authority as a reader of literature, but as informed readers ourselves, we must also help student readers to expand their repertoires of response to and interpretation of literature” (24). Students have a wide variety of textual response strategies at their disposal when they respond to literature in their journals.  For a comprehensive list of strategies, see Appendix C.  For example, students can explore an emotional response and describes how a particular scene from a story made them feel.  Or, students can pursue a deeper analysis as they interpret the larger symbolic meaning of an event or a character’s actions.  Anson and Beach articulate the importance of including a variety of strategies for engaging with and working through a text, which is crucial for students to develop fuller understanding (122-132).  We want students to develop their critical thinking and problem solving skills, activate prior knowledge, connect literature to other texts and their own experience, explore the cultural norms of the text, and articulate their own personal reaction or emotional response that the texts evokes.  If your students do a lot of free-writing, where they choose any strategies they wish to employ, you should

encourage them to vary the kinds of responses in their journals.  Students should examine their work and evaluate what strategies they usually employ.  Urge them to try another type of response and make sure they have models available if they are hesitant to branch out.  When you develop specific prompts, combine various strategies in a single entry, carefully considering the sequence you wish students to utilize.  For example, ask students to recount what happened a short story, then connect the story to a personal experience, and use that to infer meaning to the original text.  Or, students first explain a character’s actions, go on to explore how the cultural norms of the story’s setting shape those actions, and lastly judge those actions based on the story’s cultural norms.  Keeping your own journal or notebook as a model for students is a crucial aspect of using journals in the classroom.  Randy Bomer writes, “Students can not be expected to write something that they have not read and become familiar with” (53).  You have to show as well as tell your class how to use journals.  Share your own entries with them.  This not only encourages their writing, but also helps them see you as co-learner who also works through a text in writing rather than as an authoritative dispenser of knowledge.  When sharing your own journal entries during discussion, avoid monopolizing the experience or giving students the impression that you have the “right” answer.  Remember to keep the focus on your students’ thoughts and voices and prioritize their independent knowledge construction. Different Types of Journals Informal writing-to-learn goes by many different names:  reader response journals, learning logs, dual entry journals, writer’s notebooks, reading logs.  Though called by different names by different teachers and researchers, many of these types are similar.  The basic format includes a variety of entries of various lengths, usually alternating between free-writing and responding to specific

prompts.  Usually reader response journals and reading logs are used exclusively for response to literature.  Teachers often use learning logs for all classroom activities.  Elizabeth Perritt Lee, in her discussion of what she calls learning response logs, says that she likes this name because a log can be defined as “a report of the construction of something.”  She writes, “For the students, the logs serve as a personal record of their preparation and effort to learn, their reflection on their meaning making, and their extension and reformulation of knowledge” (41).  Whatever name you use for your students’ journals, the basic principles of writing-to-learn that I’ve outlined remain the same.  The name is not particularly consequential.  Though response to literature should be an integral part of using journals, limiting them to reader response only isn’t the most effective way to use them. A common way to set up reader response journals, learning logs, etc, incorporates two columns or two facing pages for entries.  On the left side, students write down observations, personal reactions, or questions about what they’ve read.  On the right side, students analyze what they have written in the left column, making inferences, drawing conclusions, and attempting to answer their own questions, using specific evidence from the text.  This is commonly called a dual entry or double entry journal.  When students see these various strategies side by side, they have a visual representation of how reaction, recording, interpretation, comparison, questioning, and analysis work together in the formation of knowledge.  They can easily see the reciprocal nature of journals.  Teacher-researchers Susan Monroe Nugent and Harold E. Nugent use a variation of this dual entry format in their classrooms, which they also call a double entry journal.  Rather than side by side entries, they use a set of “before” and “after” entries.  After an initial written response, students engage in discussion with the class and share their journal entries with one another.  They then

write a second entry which incorporates new thoughts and ideas they have acquired during this process.  This method closely integrates reading, writing, speaking and listening into one activity.  As Nugent and Nugent explain, “Our primary goal of enhancing creativity and discovery is achieved by students activating knowledge and feelings, collaborating with peers, and integrating language skills…When we are involved in all four language skills, we can more fully explore a subject” (262). Another effective type of journal that will have a positive impact on your classroom is the dialogue journal.  This format involves sharing reciprocal journal entries with your students, or having students share with one another.  You and your students read the same text and have written conversations about it.  Through this shared dialogue, students can more easily formulate knowledge and enjoy the social aspects of the exchange.  Working through an unfolding conversation focuses students on the process of the writing experience instead of the end-product.  This method is especially helpful for students who have trouble journaling because they feel like they are writing in isolation.  Many teachers and students find dialogue journals enjoyable not only for the academic benefits, but also because they get to know each other through the shared dialogue.  The rapport you will develop with your students will easily transfer to other areas of the classroom. If I were to recommend one type of journal for the English classroom, it would have to be the writer’s notebook, which is advocated by many educators and researchers as the best method for developing your students’ thinking and writing.  Randy Bomer, Ralph Fletcher, and others write convincingly about their success using a writer’s notebook with their students.  Students can write anything in writer’s notebooks:  observations, overheard conversations, reactions to reading, lists, poems, creative pieces, goals, drawings, clippings, and much more.  See Appendix D for a list of recommended writer’s notebook entries.  They are tools for

students to develop new ways of thinking through writing.  Though not exclusively for literature response, writer’s notebooks are the perfect place for students to write about what they have read.  There is really no reason for your students to have a separate reader response journal as well.  Notebook entries can become “workbenches” for other, more formal writing later on.  The constant use of notebooks for a variety of purposes cements writing in students’ minds as a useful and important way to think about the world and formulate one’s thoughts.  Reflecting on his own extensive work with writer’s notebooks in the English classroom, Randy Bomer asserts, “Writing in notebooks, simple and unassuming as it was, allowed my students to plant writing more deeply into the bedrock of their experience than the almost constant writing for an audience that they had done before” (57).  Journal Evaluation and Assessment Because of the informal, process-oriented nature of journals, you might have trouble deciding how to evaluate journals and factor them into student assessment.  Ava Chandler, a college professor of education, addresses problems with assessment:  “Grading journals, grading learning in progress, it seems to me, is a very destructive activity.  It not only penalizes students for trying to think and learn, the very processes schools are supposed to promote, it inhibits them” (48).  However, Chandler and most educators and researches agree that journals must be graded in some way so that students don’t neglect them in favor of other, graded work.  If journals are at center of the English classroom, we must demonstrate how crucial they are to student achievement.  Keep in mind that what your students write is not nearly as important as the fact that they are writing.  Therefore, completeness and effort are the best ways to assess journals.  They should never be graded for grammatical conventions, neatness, and organization, though you can ask students to write as legibly as possible, leave spaces between entries, and number or date their

entries.  This merely makes it easier for you to read their responses.  Don’t feel as if you have to read every word of every journal entry, however.  Just making sure that students are working through the texts by writing and getting a general idea of their thoughts and questions is enough. Randy Bomer’s methods for assessing his students’ writer’s notebooks are good suggestions to follow.  He uses three criteria when evaluating the notebooks:  volume, variety and thoughtfulness.  He suggests that students should have at least five to seven entries of varying lengths for each week, and they should use many different techniques.  Rather than writing comments in the notebook itself, simply insert a post-it note with a grade and maybe a brief comment.  The journal itself belongs to the student as a personal space to write, think, and learn.  As Bomer states, “Students should learn from their own work and my teaching, not from grading” (61).  If students want more substantive feedback, you can set up a conference with them to discuss their journals in person. Self-evaluation is also a useful tool for student journals.  Just as students construct their own knowledge, they should also evaluate their own performance and help determine their grade.  A detailed response assessing the progress they’ve made would be an excellent end-of-term entry.  Elizabeth Perritt Lee uses this method with her students.  She explains, “In most cases, I gain a greater appreciation of students’ efforts and a deeper respect for them from reading their responses.  More often than not, we are in agreement as to what the grade should be.  My students know what grade they deserve and they know whether or not they have the proof to validate it” (44).  For an example of questions for student evaluation of learning logs, see Appendix E.  Providing some structure for student self-evaluations, such as providing a list of questions for students to answer about their progress will help them get the most out of this important reflection and enable them

to continue to build on their progress. Conclusion English teachers today place a greater emphasis on journals and informal writing than they have in the past.  As journals grow in popularity, we must make sure we are applying the best possible pedagogy when we have our students write informally.  Elizabeth Perritt Lee illustrates the importance of informal writing to our students’ development as thinkers and writers when she says that our students “desperately need to be reassured that their groping for ideas is a wonderful, albeit painful, phenomenon of languaging that allows them to shape their own world according to their own intuitive patterning” (42).  I cannot stress enough the importance focusing of informal writing activities directly our students’ knowledge creation and allowing them room to grow.  If we allow our students freedom to explore their own ideas, reactions, connections, and questions, all the while supporting their thought processes with carefully designed prompts and activities, our students will reach a much deeper and significant understanding of what they read and how texts contribute to their relationship with the world.  

References Anson, Chris M. and Richard Beach.  Journals in the Classroom: Writing to Learn.  Norwood,        MA: Christopher Gordon Publishers, 1995. Bomer, Randy.  Time For Meaning: Crafting Literate Lives in Middle and High School.              Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1995. Chandler, Ava.  “Is This for a Grade? A Personal Look at

Journals.”  English Journal 86.1             Jan 1997. Fletcher, Ralph.  Breathing In, Breathing Out: Keeping a Writer’s Notebook.  Portsmouth, NH:     Heinemann, 1996. Fracareta, Pamela and Deborah J. Phillips.  “Working with a Writer’s Notebook.”  English             Journal  89.6 July 2000. Fulwiler, Toby, ed.  The Journal Book.  Portsmouth, NH:  Heinemann, 1987. Gammill, Deidra M.  “Learning the Write Way.” The Reading Teacher  59.8  May 2001. Hurst, Beth.  “My Journey with Learning Logs.” The Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy          49.1 September 2005. Kingen, Sharon.  “Journal Writing From Retreat to Reward.”  English Journal 84.2 Feb 1995. Lee, Elizabeth Perritt.  “The Learning Response Log: An Assessment Tool.”  English Journal            86.1  Jan 1997. Nugent, Susan Monroe and Harold E. Nugent.  “Learning Through Writing:  The Double-Entry   Journal in Literature Classes.”  English Quarterly  24.1 1989. Pritchard, Ruie Jane.  “Developing Reading Prompts for Reading Response and Analysis.”            English Journal  82.3 March 1993. Ramsden, Catherine.  “Can We Really Read Anything We Want?”  Making Meaning in the            Response-Based Classroom.  Margaret Hunsberger and George Labercane, eds.  Boston:

            Allyn and Bacon, 2002.   

Appendix A—Benefits of Journal Writing 

Ÿ      To Develop Fluency--Students accustomed to giving “correct answers” on short answer tests may not learn to compose and may have trouble formulating their own knowledge.

 Ÿ      To Build Confidence--Informal and spontaneous nature of

journals can encourage reluctant writers to develop their writing without fear of chastisement about their work being neat, correct, etc.

 Ÿ      To Learn to Concentrate--Journals help students focus in on

a text and explore ideas in a more sustained way. Ÿ      To Express Emotional Reactions--Emotional response to a

piece can precipitate deeper analysis and fuller learning. Ÿ      To Explore and Extend Thinking--Students participate in an

inner dialogue about their reading.  Reflection on their initial ideas further shapes their thinking.

 Ÿ      To Formulate and Test Beliefs or Questions--Students

construct their own knowledge, deciding what questions they have and what their beliefs are.  They make their own meaning by connecting their own concerns to the text and exploring the complexity of their thinking.

 Ÿ      To Lay the Foundation for More Formal Work--Students

use their journals to develop their thinking about a particular text, which helps them generate material for formal essays. 

They can also use their journal for prewriting exercises, such as outlines and organization.

 Ÿ      To Enrich the Social Context of the Classroom--Journals

enhance class discussion by preparing all students with material to share, which they have had time to formulate and articulate in writing before hand.  Journal writing allows students to experiment with different voices which contribute to their exploration of social identities within the classroom.

   Taken from:  Anson, Chris M. and Richard Beach.  Journals in the Classroom: Writing to Learn.  Norwood, MA: Christopher Gordon Publishers, 1995. Pages 24-52.          Appendix B—Formulating Writing Prompts General Tips:Ÿ      Writing prompts should be open-ended.  You are giving the

student room to explore.Ÿ      Use a variety of different prompts through each stage of

reading--before, during and after.Ÿ      Sequence prompts to orchestrate developmentŸ      Combine prompts that activate prior knowledge, personal

response, and address characteristics of the text.

Ÿ      Encourage students to date responses so that they can go back and revisit previous entries.

 Pre-Writing Prompts:Ÿ      These prompts should encourage curiosity about the text,

activate prior experience or feelings, help students connect with the characters or themes, or let students predict events.

Ÿ      It is easier to preview emotions, language and themes rather than form and structure.

Ÿ      Try pulling out important quotes or vivid descriptions from the text they will be reading as a preview to the literature.

Ÿ      Build prompts around other short texts--poems, photos, newspaper clippings, fairy tales--as a way to introduce students to the text and start making connections.

Ÿ      Rather than using written or verbal prompts, try using related music or artwork to elicit student responses.

 Prompts During Reading:Ÿ      These prompts should help student recognize and analyze

literary conventions, keep track of personal responses and impressions of the reading, formulate generalizations, and reconsider initial opinions or impressions.

Ÿ      Design prompts that connect to the pre-reading journal entries.Ÿ      Students should read a section of the text before responding to

journal prompts so that reading is not interrupted.Ÿ      Balance prompts that require close attention to the reading with

those that ask more general questions about personal connections.

 Post-Reading Prompts:Ÿ      These prompts should consider larger meanings of particular

characters, symbols, or themes to the text as a whole.  Students should see the “big picture” of the piece. 

Ÿ      Encourage students to think about how their impressions or opinions changed from the beginning to the end of the text.

Ÿ      Create prompts that connect with other journal entries from before and during the reading.

Ÿ      Have students compare the current text to other pieces of literature, investigating interstitial links in regards to content, themes, form, literary conventions, etc.

   Taken from:  Pritchard, Ruie Jane.  “Developing Reading Prompts for Reading Response and Analysis.” English Journal  82.3 March 1993. Pages 25-28.  Appendix C—Textual Response Strategies Ÿ      Engaging--Readers express a range of subjective experiences,

including emotional reactions and associations, empathy, and identification.

 Ÿ      Adopting a Character’s Perspective--The student attempts to

write in a particular character’s voice.  She tells a story through the character’s eyes or creates a dialogue between two characters.

 Ÿ      Recalling/Recounting--Students record character traits, key

events, or important imagery.  They can also predict outcomes.  This helps readers attend to important textual aspects and gives them a reference to go back to later.

 Ÿ      Inferring/Explaining--Students engage in deeper analysis and

problem solving, using a character’s actions or key events to infer meaning or significance.  Charts can be helpful for this strategy:

            Character’s actions or key events               Meaning/Significance

        Things I don’t       understand

     Information that may      help me understand

             Possible           “answers”

  Ÿ      Connecting--Readers link autobiographical information or

previous readings to current texts and use them to interpret and reflect on what they’re reading.

 Ÿ      Collecting Related Texts--Students use their journals to

collect other texts or parts of texts that relate to their current reading, such as photos, newspaper or magazine articles, advertisements, previous writing, excerpts from stories, poems, letters, quotes, etc.

 Ÿ      Interpreting--Readers infer the larger symbolic meaning of

character actions or events and relate the text to larger issues, such as power, freedom, identity, love, etc.

 Ÿ      Constructing Cultural Worlds--Students understand and

evaluate the “cultural world” of the text, using events and characters to interpret the conventions of this world and how characters relate to them.

 Ÿ      Judging--Students make judgments about the text that they

support with evidence.  Judgments can address the characters’ actions, ideas, beliefs, etc., or the writing itself.

  Taken from:  Anson, Chris M. and Richard Beach.  Journals in the Classroom: Writing to Learn.  Norwood, MA: Christopher Gordon Publishers, 1995.  Pages 122-132. Appendix D—Some Suggested Writer’s Notebook Entries

 Ÿ      MemoriesŸ      ReflectionsŸ      Pictures/drawingsŸ      Newspaper/magazine clippingsŸ      Reading responseŸ      Overheard conversationsŸ      Images that stick in the mindŸ      Imagined dialogueŸ      PoemsŸ      Copied textŸ      FreewritingŸ      Revision of thinkingŸ      DreamsŸ      Experiments with genre or styleŸ      Story ideasŸ      Sensory impressionsŸ      QuotesŸ      Conversing with oneselfŸ      Song lyricsŸ      Reflections on other pieces of writingŸ      Experiments with really long or short sentencesŸ      Decision makingŸ      InterviewsŸ      Family storiesŸ      PhotosŸ      ListsŸ      ObservationsŸ      Plans or goalsŸ      Comics/cartoons  Adapted from:  Bomer, Randy.  Time For Meaning: Crafting Literate Lives in Middle and High School.  Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1995. Page 56.

 

Appendix E—Sample Evaluation of Learning Log Entries Directions:  During the semester, you have used the learning-response log to develop and strengthen higher order thinking skills.  Answer the following questions thoroughly and honestly. 

Discuss fully your use of the logs to learn. 

Which activities recorded in your log have benefited your learning?

 Which activities have benefited your writing?

 What do you like about keeping a learning-response log?  What

do you dislike? 

Review your entries.  What aspects of your learning and thinking have improved or changed?

 Select five responses from your log that reveal your best

thinking.  Explain fully why you find these outstanding.   Taken from: Lee, Elizabeth Perritt.  “The Learning Response Log: An Assessment Tool.”  English Journal  86.1  Jan 1997.  Page 43.