Author List for Novel- Dialectical Journal
Chinua Achebe
Sherman Alexie
Isabel Allende
Rudolfo Anaya
Margaret Atwood
Jane Austen
James Baldwin
Saul Bellow
Charlotte Bronte
Emily Bronte
Raymond Carver
Willa Cather
John Cheever
Kate Chopin
Sandra Cisneros
Joseph Conrad
Edwidge Danticat
Daniel Defoe
Anita Desai
Charles Dickens
Fyodor Dostoevsky
George Eliot
Ralph Ellison
Louise Erdich
William Faulkner
Henry Fielding
F. Scott Fitzgerald
E.M. Forster
Thomas Hardy
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Ernest Hemingway
Zora Neale Hurston
Kazuo lshiguro
Henry James
Ha Jin
Edward P. Jones
James Joyce
Maxine Hong Kingston Joy Kogawa
Jhumpa Lahiri
Margaret Laurence
D.H. Lawrence
Chang-rae Lee
Bernard Malamud
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Cormac McCarthy
Ian McEwan
Herman Melville
Toni Morrison
Bharati Mukherjee
Vladimir Nabokov
Flannery O'Connor
Orhan Pamuk
Katherine Anne Porter Marilynne Robinson
Jonathan Swift
Mark Twain
John Updike
Alice Walker
Evelyn Waugh
Eudora Welty
Edith Wharton
John Edgar Wideman
Virginia Woolf
Richard Wright
Approximately every six weeks, you need to read a novel and complete insightful dialectical journal entries. The journal
will be collected twice (after the 1st three weeks and at the end of the 6th week). You should be about half way through
the novel after the 1st three weeks and finished with the novel before you hand in the journal at the end of the 6th week.
Evaluation of your journal will be based on the DJ rubric. At least ten (10) entries are required PER submission.
Choose one of the authors above OR another author of literary merit. You must check with me if the writer you choose
is NOT on this list.
Due dates for DIALECTICAL JOURNAL are as follows:
NOVEL
½ NOVEL READ- DJ due:
NOVEL COMPLETED: DJ due:
1st
Fri.,Sept. 26, 2014
Fri. Oct. 17, 2014
2nd
Mon.,Nov. 10, 2014
Mon. Dec.1, 2014
3rd
Mon. Dec. 22, 2014
Fri. Jan. 9, 2015
4th
Fri.,Jan. 30, 2015
Fri. Feb. 20, 2015
5th
Fri. March 13, 2015
6th
Fri. April 24, 2015
Thurs. April 2, 2015
Fri. May, 15, 2015
Dialectical Journals ("DJ's")
Make Reading an Interactive Experience!
Isn't reading an isolated, passive experience?
No way!! When you're reading a book, you're never alone!
Who am I interacting with?
• the characters
• the author
• yourself , as you reflect
• you can even "interact" with the setting of the story as you place yourself in
unf amiliar surroundings and time periods.
So how do I interact with a book?
That's where the Dialectical Journal (otherwise known as "double-entry journal" or a
"DJ") comes in to play ...
What is a "DJ"?
• A dialectical journal is a running dialogue between you, the reader, and what you
are reading. This is done by recordi ng notes in the f orm of quotations or
paraphrases and then commenting upon what you have recorded.
How do I record the i nf ormation?
• A dialectical journal takes the form of a double entry notation, with the
quotation/passage located on the lef t side of the page and your reaction on the
right side.
What do I record?
…QUOTATION (page #)……….
Sentence, line, phrase, or paraphrase that:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
May hit with some force
May remind you of something
May make you think or question
May be an example of pleasing or
disturbing writing
Also: keep track of characters.
Underline, highlight, and/or place an
asterisk next to their name when they are
introduced so you can easily refer to
them later.
Reaction/Response
Explanation of why you chose the quotation:
 Question/Predict: Ask questions while
you read and try to predict
 Connect: to personal experiences-relation
to life, self, others
 Analyze/Evaluate: Form opinions both
while you’re reading and after you’ve
finished. Develop your own judgments
about the characters and your own ideas
about events
 Interpret: determine the meaning of what
you’ve read
 Reflect: what does the quote say about all
people and humanity?
Example
Dialectical Journal
Name:_____________
Date:_________
Quotation and page #
"...as glanced back at him standing
lone in the middle of the crossing,
he looked as if the world itself was
slung around his neck."
(page 49)
Reaction/Response
Now feel definite that Jeremy is portrayed as a Christfigure symbol. He is kind-hearted, sensitive and the author
has him in the middle of the "crossing" with the world's weight
upon him.
What will I need on my DJ to receive full credit?
• The required number of DJ's. This differs depending on the reading assignment.
• Must be neatly printed or typed.
• Quotations/paraphrases must include page number (and/or Act, scene, line,
stanza, etc. depending on the selection).
• Reactions/Responses must reveal that you were truly interacting with your reading
both personally and intellectually.
Dialectical Journal Response Ideas
What goes in the right hand column? Good question! Here are several possibilities of
responses you can write:
· Explanation: Explain why you chose the quotation/passage. Why is it important?
Why did it stand out to you?
• Question/Predict: Ask questions while you read and try to predict what
will happen next in the story.
· Connect: to personal experiences-relate to your own life, someone you know,
another piece of literature, or the world in general.
• Analyze/Evaluate: Form opinions both while you're reading and after you've
finished. Develop your own judgments about the characters and your own ideas
about events that take place in the reading.
• Interpret: determine the meaning of what you've read and why it is important to
the rest of the story.
· Ref lect: what does the quote say about all people and about humanity in general?
Can most people relate to what the character is going through? Can you?
Rubric f or Dia lectica l Journa l
Critical Reader (detailed, elaborate responses)-90-100% ( 68-75 points)
• Extra effort is evident.
• You include more than the minimal number of entries.
• Your quotes are relevant, important, thought provoking, and representative of the themes
of the novel.
• You can "read between the lines" of the text (inference).
• You consider meaning of the text in a universal sense.
• You create new meaning through connections with your own experiences or other texts.
• You carry on a dialogue with the writer. You question, agree, disagree, appreciate, and
object.
• Sentences are grammatically correct with correct spelling and punctuation.
Connected Reader (detailed responses)-80-89% (60-67 points)
• A solid effort is evident.
• You include an adequate number of legible entries.
• Your quotes are relevant and connect to the themes of the novel.
• Entries exhibit insight and thoughtful analysis.
• You construct a thoughtful interpretation of the text.
• You show some ability to make meaning of what you read.
• You create some new meaning through connections with your own experiences and the
text.
• You explain the general significance.
• You raise interesting questions.
• You explain why you agree or disagree with the text.
Thoughtful Reader (somewhat detailed responses)-75-79% (57-59 points)
• You include an insufficient number of entries.
• Sentences are mostly correct with a few careless spelling and grammatical errors.
• You selected quotes that may be interesting to you, but that don't necessarily connect to
the themes of the novel.
• Entries exhibit insight and thoughtful analysis at times.
• You make connections, but explain with little detail.
• You rarely make new meaning from the reading.
• You ask simple questions of the text.
• You may agree or disagree, but don't support your views.
Literal
•
•
•
•
•
•
Reader (simple, factual responses)-70-74% (53-56 points)
You include few entries.
Entries exhibit limited insight or none at all.
You accept the text literally.
You are reluctant to create meaning from the text.
You make few connections which lack detail.
You are sometimes confused by unclear or difficult sections of the text.
Limited Reader (perfunctory responses)-below 70% (55 points and below)
• You include very few entries.
• Very little effort is evident.
• You find the text confusing, but make no attempt to figure it out.
• You create little or no meaning from the text.
• You make an occasional connection to the text, and the ideas lack development.
• Sentences contain numerous grammatical and spelling errors.