#3038. Double-Entry Journal Writing

Reading/Writing, level: other
Posted Sun Oct 23 14:54:25 PDT 2011 by Jennifer (Jennifer).
Colorado Springs
Materials Required: Content text/reading story
Activity Time: 30 min
Concepts Taught: Reading comprehension and writing

Motivation/Anticipatory Set: Have a discussion with the students about the process of thinking while they read and making connections with the text. Explain that we all have this inner thinking, though we may not realize it.

Pre-Assessment/Activating Background Knowledge: Remind the students of the 3 different ways of connecting with text (text to text, text to self, text to world). Talk about a few examples if they need help.

Teacher Input, Modeling, & Checking for Understanding: Explain to the students that today during your reading, they will be asked to find these connections, make comments, ask questions and write them down in their journals in a double-entry format. Explain what double-entry format looks like, one side of their page is for writing down anything from the text that struck them as interesting, important, or "comment worthy" and the other side is for their comments, connections, questions, posing other views, etc.

Guided Practice: Have the students create their double-entry format. (You should create one on the board for them to copy) Find a quote within the 1st paragraph or so of the story/content and show them where to write it down, have the students copy it as well. Then talk about why you chose that one and write down your response as students are copying what you are writing.

Independent Practice: Students read the text independently and complete their journal entry. This can be done independently or in partners (where they would share the reading responsibility and quotes pulled from the book). The amount you choose is up to you, for instance, you may ask them to find at least 7 quotes or 5 if they are working in partners.

Closure: Leave time for sharing their entries and discussion of any misunderstandings of the text.

Assessment: This assignment is one that wouldn't necessarily be graded, but perhaps given a participation grade. Assessment would happen during the closure where students share their comments, connections, and questions.