ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS RESOURCES

READER'S/WRITER'S LOG

Planning Points

Approximate Time Needed: 1 day for introduction
Correlation to English I SCS: 1.02, 4.02, 5.01, 5.02
Correlation to NC High School Exit Exam Competencies: C.2, C.3, C.5, C.6, C.7, C.8

Lesson Objectives:

• Students will informally respond personally and analytically to a variety of texts and genres.
• Students will "discuss" (in writing) texts with peers, teacher(s), and parents.
• Students will keep a record of their growth in reading/viewing and analyzing text.

Materials Needed:

• a variety of texts (usually individually chosen by students)
• a separate notebook/journal (not part of class notes)
• Reader's/Writer's Log instructions and rubric (see attached)

Description:

NOTE: This is just the introduction of the Reader's-Writer's log, so please read below for follow-up information and approaches.

• Do this lesson early in the semester because the log is an ongoing assignment. Please note that the log is a place for students to write informally about what they read, write, view, etc. Logs are assessed for content, not for grammar and mechanics.
• Go over the requirements as outlined on the Reader's-Writer's Log Instructions. Stress that as students learn literary devices, they should include their reactions and ideas about author's writing tools in their entries. After explaining this handout, go over the rubric with them. Show them a student's entry on the overhead and grade the entry as a class according to the rubric's guidelines. That night, students write their first entry.
• After responding to the entries, pass them back and go over the handouts once again, stressing the rubric. Share on the overhead the best entry turned in from each class. Discuss the student's strengths and even comment about how s/he could improve, if at all.

Assessment:

Grade each entry according to the rubric. Students should also receive a personal note at the end of each week's entries from whomever they wrote to.

Additional Notes:

• You can assign students to write to you one week, a peer one week, and a parent one week. This rotation continues throughout the course. In turn, you can grade every week's entries but only write responses to students every third week. This helps to manage workload, but it is also to encourage discourse about literature and other texts between and among people who may not regularly communicate about such topics.
• Students need regular, weekly feedback from you initially in order to understand what it is they are supposed to do in their entries. Share superior entries on the overhead each week. Do one mini-lesson per week for the first month to remind students of procedures, layout, appropriate text selections, and ways to improve their analysis of texts. If you stay with this, you will see such growth in your students' abilities to respond to and communicate about literature and other texts.
• Tailor the log to meet your students' needs. Vary the texts students read and write about. Some weeks they can write one entry on works read for class and the others on their independent reading. Sometimes students can respond to a news article or to a piece of art, music, or poetry. This is why the log meets so many facets of the exit exam.
• Stress that the log is not a personal journal. While students may want or need to write about their problems, the log is not the appropriate place for it. That space is reserved for discourse about texts. Still, students' insights, questions, and comments help you to better understand individual students.
• For more variations and ideas on the logs, read Seeking Diversity by Linda Rief.

Teacher's Notes:

Reader's-Writer's Log Instructions

Reader's-Writer's Log: This is a place for you, me, peers, and other readers to talk about books, authors, writing, and daily observations. All the entries will be here together, in chronological order, as a record of the thinking, learning, and reading we do together.

Books: Sometimes you will choose your own books to read, and other times I will assign one. You are to have a book in your possession at all times. If you don't like a book you've chosen, abandon it and choose another.

Reading: I believe we learn to read and write by reading. Therefore, I expect you to read a work of your choice for a minimum of a half hour three to five nights per week. We will also be reading for class during the week.

Log Entries: I expect a minimum of _____ entry/entries a week. You should write at least a page per entry. All entries must include the following information in the upper right hand corner:

Date
Title of Book
Time read for
page __ to page __

Your written responses in the log do not have to be in response to the book you are reading. What you write in this log should be what you want to preserve/remember as a reader and writer. Written entries are your thoughts, reactions, interpretations, questions to what you are reading, what you are writing, and what you are observing in the world around you. Your comments should also be in response to the author's process as a writer, and your process as a reader, writer, and thinker. If you are stuck, think about the following:

Quote or point out: Quote a part of the book, your own writing, or something you heard or read, that you think is an example of good writing.

• Why did you like the quotation?
• What makes you feel this is good writing?
• Why do you want to save it?

Experiences or memories: How does this book make you think or feel?

1. 1. Does the book remind you of anything?
2. What comes to mind?
3. What kinds of ideas does this book give you for writing?

Reactions: Do you love/hate/can't stop reading this book?

1. What makes you feel that way?
2. What reactions do you have to your own writing, the writing of your peers, the world around you?

Questions: What confuses you in the book?

1. 1. What don't you understand?
2. Why did the author do something a particular way?
3. What would you have done if you were the writer?
4. What questions do you have about your own writing or about observations of the world around you?

Evaluation: How does this book compare to others you have read?

1. What makes it an effective or ineffective piece of writing?
2. How is your reading or writing going?

RESPONSE TO YOUR LOG ENTRIES: During the year you will be analyzing your responses and observations. You will be sharing your logs with me, peers of your choice, and sometimes parents or other adults (also chosen by you). The response to you is meant to "affirm what you know, challenge your thinking, and extend your learning." (Atwell 1987')

Reader's-Writer's Log RUBRIC

100:
Full page entry
Uses appropriate text
Formatted correctly
Plot summary only when necessary
Extensive personal response to the text which shows personal thoughts, reactions, interpretations, and questions in a coherent way
Includes literary analysis where appropriate

90:
Full page entry
Uses appropriate text
Formatted correctly
Plot summary only when necessary
Personal response to the text could be more extensive to show personal thoughts, reactions, interpretations, and questions in a coherent way
Includes some literary analysis where appropriate

80:
Not a full page entry and/or uses inappropriate text
Formatted correctly
More than necessary plot summary
Personal response to the text shows some personal thoughts, reactions, interpretations, and questions in a coherent way
Includes little literary analysis where appropriate

70:
Not a full page entry and/or inappropriate text
Format may be incorrect
More plot summary than personal response
Personal response to the text shows little personal thoughts, reactions, interpretations, and questions
Literary analysis is not present where appropriate

60:
Not a full page and/or inappropriate text
Format may be incorrect
Too much plot summary
Personal response to the text shows no personal thoughts, reactions, interpretations, and questions
Literary analysis is not present where appropriate

50:
Not a full page and/or inappropriate text
Format may be incorrect
Too much plot summary
Incoherent personal response to the text

Example of student entry #1 Ð typed as it appeared in student's notebook, grammatical errors and all!

1/5/01
After The First Death
Two days
Whole Book

Dear Ms. Dietz,

Unlike most people, I enjoyed this book more than A Seperate Peace. I liked After the first Death more than A Seperate Peace because I felt more when I read this book. Even though I already knew what was going to happen I still hoped for the best at the end of the book.

On page 220 I got so upset. I found myself reading it over and over as if I didn't believe what I was reading. "Kate rocked him gently, the way she had rocked the children on the bus, crooning softly, a song without a tune, words without meaning, but sounds to bring him comfort and solace."É"When he squeezed the trigger, the bullet smashed her heart, and she was dead in seconds." I was so angry. I really thought Miro had enough good in him that he could not kill the girl. What made me so mad was the fact she had been so nice to him. She held him and comforted him and he still had no mercy.

This book was very easy for me to follow. I felt as if I was there, and I really got into this book. I liked the way the author used italics to inforce the importance of certain words. On page 67 the author italicised mommy and daddy and It made me feel so sorry for the little children. " Mommy they cried, and Daddy, and other words Kate could not discern, words that were the special vocabulary of childhood to express whatever fear or terror they felt, sensing finally that something was askew in the small and safe world they had occupied until this morning." I was so interested in this book I wanted to jump into the book and help the children.

I didn't quite understand why it was so obvious that Artkin was the only static character in this book. I felt that Kate was more than Artkin because she knew she was going to die from the beginning " The child was a kind of sacrifice, Kate realized with horror. And no mercy anywhere, not anywhere in the world." Kate knew from the beginning what here fate was, but I think she really realized "after the first death".

I loved reading This book because of all the suspense. I wouldn't hesitate to read many more books by Robert Cormier. I am very glad This was one of the books you chose for us to read. I didn't know so much could come from reading a book.

Love,
Jess

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