How+to+journal

(20% of grade, used 1st semester only) **
 * A. P. Literature: THE CRITICAL READING JOURNAL

The reading journal you will be keeping here is NOT a personal response journal, where you simply write down how you are feeling about the reading. It is much more than that. This journal is designed to help you develop critical thinking and reading skills, become aware of your growth in these skills, and ultimately improve your ability to discover and articulate legitimate readings of a text. My hope is that by taking this process seriously, you will discover that you enjoy reading more and that you are delighted by your abilities and growth as a reader. By watching your own reading move from puzzlements through approximations and misreadings to more and more satisfying and legitimate readings of difficult texts, you will gradually develop a more realistic sense of what good reading is. By sharing your journals in small groups and the full class, you will also discover how different readers’ perceptions can both shape their interpretations and broaden others’. Hopefully this will free us up from the typical anxiety about who is “right” or “wrong” in their reading.



You will need a SEPARATE NOTEBOOK designated as your reading journal. No exceptions! It is essential that you complete the required reading and the right-hand side of the journal **before** each class period. Take notes on a very regular basis, and note page numbers to aid in group and class discussion**.** During class, you will add "class notes" in a smaller column on the right side of your notes page. **Leave the left-hand side (back sides of the pages) totally blank for later use.** (You may want to reverse this if you are left-handed – you decide.) The basic difference is that one side of note pages is for your comments on the text while reading and participating in class discussion; the other side is for your own assessments of your reading. **These must be kept completely separate.**

a. You see something you didn’t see before. b. You recognize a pattern – the images start to overlap or reappear, some gestures or phrases reoccur, or some details seem associated with one another. c. The story suddenly seems to you to be about something different from what you thought. d. You discover that you were misreading. e. The writer introduces a new context or a new perspective. a. Something just doesn’t fit. Explain clearly why this is so. b. Things do not make sense. Pose explicitly the question you have.
 * What to note on the right-hand or front sides of your journal pages: (I may or may not assign specific things for you to journal about on any given night.)**
 * 1. __Times when you note changes in the text or how you are reading it:__**
 * 2. __Times when you are surprised or puzzled:__**


 * 3. __Details that seem important and make you look again__.**


 * 4. __Ways in which the story makes you speculate about life or a connection to another text or situation__**.


 * 5. __Rhetorical devices you notice – how do they enhance meaning? (author’s stylistic choices)__**


 * 6. __Your first impression of the ending of each story, chapter, or complete novel. What “ended”?__**

This is an incomplete list. As you go further into your journal, you will begin to find new ideas for notations. I will also help you during the first few days by providing you with questions to consider for each reading.

When writing in your journal, **use complete sentences**. This will force you to draw out your thoughts fully. Be explicit about your thoughts – cite text if necessary. **Cite page numbers often.** Quote often, and **after every quote note why you chose it.** The more detailed your journal entries are, the less confused you will be by them later, in class discussion, writing and conferencing. The journal will seem less like an intrusion if you allow use it in a way that fits naturally with your reading. For some of you, this will mean keeping a pen in hand at all times and jotting as you read. For others, this might mean reading a chapter or a chunk of pages, and then reflecting and writing on what you read. Or it may be a combination of both methods. **Good readers of good literature stop and reflect as they read**. Only casual readers of popular literature should read for plot only. The books you will be reading in literature classes here and in college are significant and interesting more for their characters, stylistic devices, and themes than for their mere plots alone.

==**RULE OF THUMB: Write one comment for every 2-3 pages of reading. DO NOT WRITE TOO MUCH! This is not intended to be an activity that eats up hours of your time. If you have 15 pages of reading on a given evening, it should take you approximately 30 minutes to do the reading and 10-15 minutes to write comments. If your A.P. Lit. homework is taking you an hour or more to complete most nights, come see me, and we'll find a way to reduce that.**==

**Using the journals in class:**
You will draw on your journal entries regularly in class discussion, and in turn you will work out in your journals new issues that come up in class. Sometimes I will call on a student at random to begin the day’s discussion by drawing on a selection from his or her journal. Other times I will ask you to spend the first few minutes of class sharing your journals in small groups. In these ways, you will begin to note and appreciate that what you do individually in the journals can build into a more meaningful communal activity. On occasion, I will have you write briefly about your previous night’s journal entry.

You will be expected to add to your journals during our class discussion, using the column on the right next to your reading notes. You will find that some of your peers have answers to your questions or will have noticed something you didn’t. We will discuss ways to make and organize these additions in class. Remember, the left-hand sides (back sides) are for a completely different activity, so do not use them for note-taking.


 * What to put on the left-hand or back sides of the pages:**

When we **finish** a story or full-length text, you will then go back to the start of your journal and begin reading through your commentary. Look at your original observations and comment on them. As you read through your journal entries, look to see if there are any patterns to the changes you experienced or the ways in which the text confused you. Why did you misread what you did? When did things start to come together? Use the left-hand sides of the pages to make comments about your original reading and the thought processes you used as you worked through the text alone and in class.

Next, reflect upon yourself as a reader. What do you tend to focus on the most? What do you tend to overlook? What do you care most about? What interests you? What do you disregard? What did you miss? What did you get? Consider all realms here: the writing, the story, the context, and the universal ideas. Comment on these things on the last few left-hand pages of this book’s journaling.

Finally, step back a moment and reflect. Discuss your emerging sense of how this story works and what it’s about. How did YOU as a reader influence the way you read this story? How did your own experiences, personality, preferences, etc, shape the way you read, interpreted, and appreciated this story?




 * The Conferences (1/4 of the CRJ grade):**

In late November and December, you will each schedule a 10-12 minute conference with me where you will share with me your growth as a reader during the first semester. Your journal will be your primary source of preparation for this conference. You’ll prepare by reviewing your journal, selecting specific parts to read to me, summarizing and interpreting your work so as to show me what you made of each text, and answering my questions about your growth as a reader.

Our focus at this critical stage with the journal is not to pass some sort of bar, but rather for you to reflect upon and share with me your own process of making meaning. What begins in the journal as a kind of personal dialectic through the use of opposing sides of the pages will become a dialogue, where with my help you will recognize your strengths (and possibly weaknesses!) as a reader. The object is to enhance your self-awareness about your reading and thinking styles.


 * Grading the journals:**

Occasionally I will circulate around the room and “spot-check” your work in the journals. After we complete our first text, I will collect the journals once, just to make sure you are being complete and thoughtful. Finally, and most importantly, I will assess how you use your journal in the conference. I fully expect you will earn an A or B on your journal. If you do not, I will recommend you change classes at semester. The time and energy you put into your journal shows me how dedicated you are to learning and growing as a student.


 * Half of journal grade - Spot-checks** **following each unit**

Preliminary readings (essays, short stories, poetry)

//The Awakening//

//Dubliners//

//Light in August//


 * 1/4 of journal grade - Longer written reflections following these texts:**

After //The Awakening//

After //Light in August//


 * 1/4 of journal grade - Conference:** (More on these later)