Bryce continues with his Go Deep! reading series:
Reading it once is not enough, but how do we get kids to read something again? If it’s about them it helps. The double entry journal is another quick and easy technique that can be used to get students to re-read material and to quickly check for understanding. It requires no prep and no special materials besides the novel. Using double entry journals is a technique that elementary reading teachers have used for years. You do not need a special form for this—just a piece of paper divided down the middle. After reading a chapter, say in Spanish: “Class, take out a piece of paper. Fold your paper like a burrito. Do not fold it like a taco.” Here is how this lesson played out in my classroom the other day:
I had intended that the class read chapter six in Patricia va a California, a crucial chapter where the antagonist, Debbie Martin, is introduced. The plan was for student volunteers to read short passages aloud in English and I would ask questions to get the usual banter going.
But the students had other ideas. They asked if they could just read it quietly alone or with partners in class instead. The vibe felt right; I felt like it might be on task behavior (for that class, that day anyway), so I allowed it. At one point, about 6 minutes into the reading time, I had to interrupt them. This isn’t exactly best practice for a reading session, but you have to catch them being good. I told them that I should take a picture of the class to be a model of what reading should look like. They went right back to reading after my rude interruption and when most had finished we talked about a short assignment that they could start in class, if they wished.
The assignment was to write a summary and a reaction of two pages in the chapter. It could be any two pages in the chapter. This is way of getting the students to re-read the material, show that they have understood it and show that they have thought about it a bit. Here is what was written on the board:
Summary (show you understood it) Write 4-6 sentences in Spanish.
Reaction (show you have thought about it) Write 3-5 sentences in English or Spanish.
Here is a sample of one page written by a typical student (average kid; not top, not bottom):
Summary: Patricia está en la clase de ingles. Patricia conoce un chico de Guatemala. Se llama Alejandro. Los otros estudiantes no le gustan latinos. Patricia aprende acerca de animadoras. Patricia aprende que una animadora lleva un vestido especial.
This is written just as the student did. She accurately summarized the page and showed that she understood it. She also was able to discern the most important parts of the story on that page.
Are there mistakes? Yes, a few. The personal “a” for instance, is missing two times. This is a late acquired item and not a big deal at this level. There is one missing accent mark on the word inglés. Since occasional missing accent marks are not generally marked down on holistically graded assessments like the AP Exam, this is not that big of a deal either.
This is her reaction:
“I like this page because Patricia found a friend besides Diane and Lisa. Alejandro can relate to the way Patricia feels. I think by the end of the story Alejandro and Patricia will become a couple.”
If we did this every time we read it would become old quick, but as an occasional check for understanding it works and my students enjoyed it.