Double-Entry Journals

AP English
What is a double-entry journal?
In double-entry journals, facts are written in the left-hand column and interpretations or reactions
on the right. (See section on format below.)

The Role of the Journal in Class

Your double-entry journal will most often record responses to readings. However, at times you
will also record responses to class discussions. In addition, I may have you write responses to
open-ended questions. Ideas in your journals will begin class discussions, help you further
process these discussions, and serve as resources for essays.

Why use a double-entry journal?

Goals:
To help students prepare for essays and for contributing thoughtfully to class discussions
(both small-group and whole-class).
To teach students to become critical thinkers
To enhance close reading skills
To help students distinguish between facts (quotations, summaries, paraphrases) and
applications, personal responses, and analyses
To show that making meaning is a process. Ideas can evolve and change as students
interact with information and reflect on it.
To help students become active/reflective learners who construct knowledge (rather than
passively absorb it), making it their own, and to create the foundation for studentcentered learning. The journal provides a way for students to engage with texts and to
begin class discussion with what they feel is relevant. See Advantages below.
Advantages:
1. Responsibility for learning belongs to the learner vs. "We do it all for you;"
2. Students are active/reflective vs. passive;
3. Personal relevance of new knowledge vs. assumed relevance of content to
students;
4. Classes are student centered, allowing students to question and construct
meanings vs. teacher centered (lecture) assuming teacher knows student's
questions/needs;
5. Greater student talk (pairs, triads, small groups, large groups) vs. teacher-led
"discussions" and question/answer exchanges;
6. Community of learners vs. learners as isolated individuals;
7. Improves ability to think vs. reproducing what the instructor wants to hear.

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Double-Entry Journal Format

In double-entry journals, facts are written on the left and interpretations or reactions on the right.
In the left-hand (fact) column, you may include quotations, summaries, or paraphrases. Facts
will often be from the text were working on (a novel, poem, critical essay), but facts may also
come from class discussionsyou may quote something a peer said in class or summarize our
days discussion. Occasionally, we may also use the left-hand column to pose a question, to
which you will respond in the right-hand column.
In the right-hand (interpretation and reaction) column, you may analyze or personally respond.
Sometimes you will respond twice to the same passage, including an initial reaction and a
reaction after reflection (or discussion). Ideas for right-side entries:

(Fiction): What do I predict will happen? Give support from the text.
How does this tie in with my experience, previous readings, class discussions,
expectations?
What do I not understand? What questions do I have?
Do I agree/disagree with the author? Why?
What impressed me/annoyed me about the reading?
What do I notice about the authors techniqueshow does he or she emphasize a point or
evoke a reaction? (Consider mood, tone, foreshadowing, irony, figurative language
devices, sound devices, and other literary devices. Figurative language devices include
simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, synecdoche, metonymy. Sound devices
include rhyme, alliteration, assonance, consonance, euphony, cacophony. )
How does this new information fit with my beliefs, my philosophy, prior knowledge?
Where have my ideas been challenged, changed, confirmed?

Reflections should be more than "I like this idea," or "I've never met a person who could live up
to this." Comments should reflect thoughtful views on the implications of what the author is
saying. The why should be explored rather than the what.
Be sure to title and date each entry, and to leave room for me to respond.
Format:
Facts: Quotes, summaries, paraphrases

Responses and Interpretation

Sample Double Entry Journal Response to Maya Angelou, from the Urban Dreams Project. (9 th grade).
Facts: Quotes, summaries, paraphrases
My race groaned. It was our people falling.
It was another lynching, yet another Black
man hanging on a tree (135).

Responses and Interpretation

The people in the store think Joe Louis is losing the fight.
(Weak)
The people in the store are filled with anxiety and
expectation as they watch the fight. When Joe Louis
appears to be losing, they feel that symbolically they are
all losing. Their hope and dreams for freedom and respect
are fighting in that ring. (Strong)
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Organizing Your Notebook

Please divide your notebook into separate sections for (1) double-entry journals, (2) notes, (3)
vocabulary, and (4) any other sections you find helpfulsuch as handouts, peer response, essay
drafts. Your double-entry journal section may consist of looseleaf paper or a hardbound
composition book or spiral notebook.
While you will often take class notes on pages separate from your double-entry journal, at times,
class notes may in fact be your entire left column. If I ask you to respond to class discussion,
Socratic Seminar, or an article, you might take notes in the left column during class, and then
write the response and interpretation (right column) at home. (Its up to you whether the left
column is the left side of one sheet of paper, or whether its the left side of a spiral notebook. If
you have large handwriting, you might do better page-width columnsyoure more likely to go
into depth.)
Sample 1:
Sept. 3, 2009

Double-Entry Journal: My Kinsman RJ 2

Facts (Quotes, summary)

Response & Interpretation

Notes Sept. 8, 2009

Facts

Double-Entry Journal Response: Garber article

Response & Interpretation

Critical Lenses:

Structure
Gender
History
Unconscious (incl. Freud, Oedipus complex)
Myth
Economics
Deconstruction (post-structuralist)

Grading
Your double-entry journals are worth 20% of your term grade. While I will read and respond to some of
your entries, I may not read all of them. Many of your ideas will already have been shared in class
discussions, and you will be using ideas from your journal every time you write a formal essay. (Dont
forget that class participation and formal essays account for the rest of your gradethe journal will help
you with both.) Be sure to title and date your entries, as I may spot-check to see that all required entries
are thereI will keep a list of journals Ive asked you to complete. Also be sure to leave room between
entries for me to respond.
Journals will be collected periodically, every 2-4 weeks. I will often collect journals by groups, so that I
am not keeping your journals for more than 1-2 days. Typically, I collect journals the day a draft is due
for peer response, as you will need journals when drafting an essay.

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Sources
Hughes, Herman W. Dialogic Reflection: A New Face on an Old Pedagogy. Graduate School of Education and
Psychology at Pepperdine University, Culver City, California. Accessed 3 Sept. 2003. Available:
http://gsep.pepperdine.edu/~whughes/Journaling.html
Joyce, Marilyn. Double-Entry Journals and Learning Logs. Maine Educational Media Association. Accessed 3
Sept. 2003. Last updated Oct. 1997. Available: http://www.maslibraries.org/infolit/samplers/spring/doub.html
Teaching with Journals. Manoa Writing Project. University of Hawaii at Manoa. Accessed 3 Sept. 2003. Last
updated 2001. Available: http://mwp01.mwp.hawaii.edu/journals.htm
Teaching with Journals. The University of Kansas Center for Teaching Excellence. Accessed 3 Sept. 2003.
Available: http://www.ku.edu/~cte/resources/writing/journals.html
Oakland Unified School District. Urban Dreams Project: A U.S. Department of Education Technology Innovation
Urban Challenge Grant. 2003. Accessed 3 Sept. 2003. Available:
http://urbandreamsproject.org/lessonplans/angelou/pdf/doubleentry.pdf

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