Writing, Thinking, Learning: How to Teach Response to
Literature 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 inclass 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 onethird 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
 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.
 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.
 To Learn to Concentrate--Journals help students focus in on a
text and explore ideas in a more sustained way.
 To Express Emotional Reactions--Emotional response to a
piece can precipitate deeper analysis and fuller learning.
 To Explore and Extend Thinking--Students participate in an
inner dialogue about their reading. Reflection on their initial
ideas further shapes their thinking.
 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.
 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.
 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:
 Writing prompts should be open-ended. You are giving the
student room to explore.
 Use a variety of different prompts through each stage of
reading--before, during and after.
 Sequence prompts to orchestrate development
 Combine prompts that activate prior knowledge, personal
response, and address characteristics of the text.
 Encourage students to date responses so that they can go back
and revisit previous entries.
Pre-Writing Prompts:
 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.
 It is easier to preview emotions, language and themes rather
than form and structure.
 Try pulling out important quotes or vivid descriptions from the
text they will be reading as a preview to the literature.
 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.
 Rather than using written or verbal prompts, try using related
music or artwork to elicit student responses.
Prompts During Reading:
 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.
 Design prompts that connect to the pre-reading journal entries.
 Students should read a section of the text before responding to
journal prompts so that reading is not interrupted.
 Balance prompts that require close attention to the reading with
those that ask more general questions about personal
connections.
Post-Reading Prompts:
 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.
 Encourage students to think about how their impressions or
opinions changed from the beginning to the end of the text.
 Create prompts that connect with other journal entries from
before and during the reading.
 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
 Engaging--Readers express a range of subjective experiences,
including emotional reactions and associations, empathy, and
identification.
 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.
 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.
 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
 Connecting--Readers link autobiographical information or
previous readings to current texts and use them to interpret and
reflect on what they’re reading.
 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.
 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.
 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.
 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
Possible
“answers”





























Memories
Reflections
Pictures/drawings
Newspaper/magazine clippings
Reading response
Overheard conversations
Images that stick in the mind
Imagined dialogue
Poems
Copied text
Freewriting
Revision of thinking
Dreams
Experiments with genre or style
Story ideas
Sensory impressions
Quotes
Conversing with oneself
Song lyrics
Reflections on other pieces of writing
Experiments with really long or short sentences
Decision making
Interviews
Family stories
Photos
Lists
Observations
Plans or goals
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 learningresponse 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.