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Notes on READERS’ RESPONSE JOURNAL




Note: Journal entries may be done at home or in class or half and half. They may form the basis for discussion, further development or exploration, group work, formal or informal oral work and/or further writing assignments. They may be mixed and matched, adapted for individual works, different ages, specific goals. Variety and modification are essential to avoid formula approaches and boredom. A quick journal response to the topic at hand or a homework assignment is a good way to begin a class, to focus students on the task at hand. Many of these suggestions work for works of art, film and music as well.



1. Pre- write: before reading, respond to title, extracted images or words or ideas . . . What is your experience of the word or image? What do you see, or what expectations are set up? Use art or music before experiencing text. E.g. Look at Magritte before reading Kafka; listen to Lakota flute music before or while reading a poem by Peter Blue Cloud.



2. Write down first impressions: immediately after finishing & section or a text, take some time to –write down anything that comes to you in relation to the text, your initial reactions or responses, Don’t try to puzzle them out; write freely. If the reading bores you, write that down. If you're intrigued by certain statements, attracted to characters, interested in issues or ideas, if you find something confusing or irritating, write it down. Just keep writing. This assignment can be very brie£ a two-minute initial response to a poem or opening paragraph, or more sustained, a 20-minute "free" writing immediately after finishing a novel or play.



3. Ask questions, what perplexes you about a passage or point the author makes? Do you wonder why the author said a particular thing, in a particular way? You might begin with the words "I wonder . . ."



4. Jot down ideas, words, details, moments, anything that strikes you. This assignment may result in sjmple lists. Or students may write about these entries, or some of these entries, as homework or working from the lists in class. They may answer such questions as: why are they there? What might they mean? What do they add? Why did you pick them out? Why are they memorable? In response to images, students might begin to see, ... feel ... bear . . - smell . . . turn . . . ! imagine ...



5. Copy passages, long or short, that strike you for whatever reason. Underline key words or phrases, parts of speech, punctuation marks. What is striking and why? How do words and images work? Or, color mark with different colors specific elements (e.g. parts of speech, shapes, colors, harsh words, nature words, references to earth, sky, time, space, people, animals), to identify dominant elements, patterns or structural shifts, and speculate about the significance of your markings.



6. Make connections with your own experience, with other texts or concepts or events. Do you see any similarities between this material and other bocks that you have read? Does it bring to mind other issues or incidents or people?



7. Write down some words that are new to you or particularly effective, harsh, musical . . .



8. Draw pictures in response to what you read or make collages, adding words from the text. Or design book covers, again with words from the text, or draw stage settings ...



9. Try agreeing or arguing with the author; add details to support your position.



10. Identify the author's point of view, his or her attitude toward the subject, the purpose behind the piece of writing. Compare it to your own or that of other writers.





MINIMAL:



Write a personal response; copy a passage and comment on it; state an opinion and support it; ask questions; choose an image and respond to it; make lists.



Medium:

-Copy a significant or striking passage. Tell why it is striking or important, what it tells you about character or theme or atmosphere or narrator. Identify key words or images or phrases and write about their effects. .Color mark for important elements or patterns and comment on their nature and implications.

— Write down five striking things. A thing may be an idea, an event, a word, a person, a phrase, an image, a conversation, a moment, a detail, a chapter title ...

- Write a personal response to a person or event or the opening chapter or immediately after finishing.. . —Write a page of lists of details or sentences or phrases or colors or things in nature or objects ...

Specific:

-Give examples of the child's voice in The Bluest Eye. List images of decay in Hamlet. List phrases that characterize the narrator of “Prufrock." List significant objects in the first six chapters of One Hundred Years of Solitude. List conflicts in "Young Goodman Brown."