Friday, June 21, 2013

Summer Reading Journal Entry Tips

Tips for Journaling for your summer reading:
As you actively read:
ü Ask questions
ü Predict
ü Visualize the (action, setting or the moment)
ü Connect
ü Respond
“Respond” is where the journaling begins. Choose 2 or 3 passages from each chapter that were most interesting to you. Write down the passages (hopefully, each passage is not an entire page!) and then write your reaction or response. DO NOT summarize, do not re-write, but instead describe your personal feelings regarding that specific passage.
Try organizing your thoughts in a graphic manner if it will help to make more sense of the journaling process
1984 by George Orwell
TEXT
RESPONSE
“The Ministry of love was the really frightening one. There were no windows in it at all. Winston had never been inside the Ministry of Love, nor within half a kilometer of it. It was a place impossible to enter except on official business and then only by penetrating through a maze of barbed-wire entanglements, steel doors and hidden machine-gun nest. Even the streets leading up to its outer barriers were roamed by gorilla-faced guards in black uniforms, armed with jointed truncheons.” Page 8
This passage shows just how isolated Winston and the rest of the world is in 1984. The hope to love is seemingly impossible, without being severely injured. The metaphor of this impossibility is similar to our lives today, we want love, who doesn’t, but at the cost of getting hurt? If that is truly the case, then finding love in this world is just as impossible as it is in Winston’s world: cold guarded and treacherous.


Remember the goal is to write your own personal reaction to the text passage you choose, not to re-tell an event or summarize. Make connections and make your responses meaningful. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and challenge the actions of the characters or the authors purpose in the midst of your journaling. Consider this: if you are struggling to understand a certain segment of the text you are reading, that is the perfect time to stop and start journaling, you may find clarity. Happy Summer Reading!
Miss Sanders
ELAR-NIAA

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