One notebook, all year, for annotation notes, drafting, and the record of what you can now do.
What goes in
- Responses to the reading — not summaries. What you noticed, what you argued with, what you could not work out.
- Passage notes with page numbers, ready for seminars.
- Drafting. Every major piece starts here.
- After discussions: the position you came in with and where you left it, per Our Agreements.
- Your own reading, a few lines every couple of weeks.
- Vocabulary, at the back: words met in reading, with the sentence they were found in.
How it is used
In seminars, open on the desk. In workshops, as the source of your draft. In the essay-writing periods, where a page of notes beats a blank document every time — and in the examination, where the only thing you bring is what you can remember having thought.
The habit
Write the entry the same day. An entry written in June about a November class is a memory of a memory.
If journals have never worked for you
Three sentences: what happened in the text, what you thought, one question for the writer. Three of those a week is a real journal, and it is enough to carry a seminar.
Curriculum connection
B4.1
describe a variety of strategies they used before, during, and after reading; explain which ones they found most helpful; and identify detailed steps they can take to improve as readers (e.g., describe the strategies they used in reading a short story and explain how the strategies were helpful; use a Venn diagram to identify which strategies are useful at a particular stage of the reading process and which are useful at more than one stage – or at all stages)
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C1.3
locate and select information to appropriately support ideas for writing, using a variety of strategies and print, electronic, and other resources, as appropriate (e.g., create a research plan and track their progress using a research portfolio; identify a range of sources in school or public libraries and on the Internet that will provide the most appropriate information for an assignment; interview family and community members, experts, or witnesses to events; use key word searches and other browsing strategies to locate a range of periodical and e-book information in online databases; accurately record page references for information from primary sources; record all sources of information in a list of works cited or references, observing conventions for proper documentation and full acknowledgement of sources and extracts, in recognition of the need to credit original authors and promote academic honesty; use a detailed template to evaluate sources and information for reliability, accuracy, currency, and relevance to the topic; discuss the information selected, the progress of their research to date, and new sources to consider with the teacher or teacher-librarian)
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C4.3
select a variety of examples of different types of writing that they think reflect significant advances in their growth and competence as writers and explain the reasons for their choice (e.g., identify work in which they deliberately tried to include strong verbs and concrete diction; explain how they used real-life examples to add depth to their essay about a societal issue)
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B4.2
identify a variety of their skills in listening, speaking, writing, viewing, and representing and explain how the skills help them read more effectively (e.g., describe in a double-entry journal how viewing pictures of a historical period contributes to their understanding of fiction set in that period)
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