From the Malden High ELA Department

Reader’s Notebook Possibilities If you’re having trouble understanding or following the plot, you can…

• Look up vocabulary. Write the word and the dictionary definition. • Summarize each chapter (or, with difficult text, each page or paragraph).

o Note important details. List important events chronologically. o At the end of the chapter, complete this sentence for each character:

(A character) wanted….but….so…. • Ask clarifying questions. Then try to answer your questions through re-

reading, thinking about the question, or asking someone. • Visualize the text. Describe in your own words or draw a picture of the

characters, setting, or a particular scene. • Pay attention to your attention. If you can’t concentrate on the story, why

not? What could you change to help you pay better attention? To get a deeper understanding, you can…

• Make inferences. Inferences are conclusions you can draw based on information that’s available and your own experiences. For example, if you saw a child in a stroller with a woman pushing it, you might infer the woman was his mother. But be careful to check your inferences when new information comes up – that woman could be a kidnapper or the baby sitter or his aunt.

• Ask deep questions. Deep questions usually begin with “Why” and don’t just have a single answer. Think about the possible answers.

• Make connections. You can make text-to-self connections(what in the book reminds you of your own life?), text-to-text(what in the book reminds you of another book?), or text-to-world(what in the book reminds you of something on the news, or that you’ve seen?).

• React. How do you feel about the characters or what’s happening in the book?

• Predict. What do you think is going to happen next? Why? • Pick out important, interesting, or confusing passages. Explain why you

picked the passage from the text. Use the passage to make inferences, ask questions, make connections, react or predict.

• Look at the writer’s technique. Pick a rich passage and explain how the passage is put together. Look for and explain symbols, figurative language, and imagery.

• Think about the big ideas and the writer's overall purpose. Pick a passage and explain how it connects to one of the big ideas and the writer's overall purpose.

From the Malden High ELA Department

How to do a Dialectical Journal

On the left side, choose an interesting quotation from your reading. Pick something that catches your eye, seems important, or confuses you. You could also pick something that is beautifully written or that you think might be symbolic or foreshadow a future event in the book. You also could choose to follow a particular idea through the text. Be sure to follow the quotation with the page number of the reading assignment. The name of the book should be at the top of the page. (p. 2)

On this side, put your own words. Your entry could take any of these forms:

• Clarifying questions about a concept or moment that is confusing you. Always try to answer your own questions!

• Deep questions about the meaning of the text or the ideas being discussed.

• A reaction to the text – how do you feel about what’s happening or about the characters?

• Connections between the text and you, the text and other texts, or the text and the world.

• Predictions about what might happen next.

• Inferences, or guesses about the text based on details from the text and your own ideas or experiences.

• Observations about the author’s technique and how the technique connects to the story’s theme.

• Observations about how this moment in the text connects to a main idea of the text.

Name:___________________________________________

Malden High School Reader’s Notebook Rubric Purpose: The Reader’s Notebook is a record of all of the student’s thinking as he/she reads. It can take the form of active reading notes (questions, reactions, inferences, predictions, summary, connections, or analysis) done while the student reads or of the dialectical journal, where students select key passages from the text and, using a double column format, provide their notes in response to that passage. Students should do regular entries as they read. Reader’s Notebooks are to be assessed for both completeness and for thought. Reader’s Notebooks should also be regularly used in class as source for ideas and questions for discussions, a place to add additional notes about the reading, and as a reference for writing. Students should be encouraged to go back to their notebook to re-read and add thoughts. Text or Assignment:_______________________________________________________________________________________________ Number of Entries Required:_______________ Number of Entries in Notebook:________________ Score:_____________ Criteria 4 3 2 1 Quality of Responses

Notebook entries… Demonstrate use of multiple types of reading strategies. Are frequently supported with specific references to the text. Show student putting thought and effort into understanding the reading through generalizations, questions/inquiry, inferences, or theory building. Reflect the student’s voice, including personal and critical reactions to the text. Show evidence of re-reading, revision or rethinking of ideas.

Notebook entries… Demonstrate use of multiple types of reading strategies. Are often supported with specific references to the text. Show student putting some thought and effort into understanding the reading. Reflect the student’s voice, including some reactions to the text. May have evidence of re-reading, revision or rethinking of ideas.

Notebook entries… Demonstrate use of at least three different types of reading strategies. Sometimes are supported with specific references to the text. Show student putting little thought and effort into understanding the reading.

Notebook entries… Demonstrate the use of one or two types of reading strategies. Are rarely supported with specific references to the text. Show student putting minimal thought and effort into understanding the reading.

Completion Meet or exceed the number of entries required. Are organized and readable; include page numbers, dates.

Meet the number of entries required. Are readable.

Are less than the number of entries required. May have some problems in organization and/or readability.

Are substantially incomplete. May have some problems in organization and/or readability.

Your goal for the next round of journal entries should be: