Reader Response Journals

Class,

I have taken in consideration of your feedback on the literary circles, so I propose a new task in its place:

This semester, half of your daily grade assignment will come from your Reader Response Journals. These journals are to be used to record your thoughts, responses, and questions over the readings assigned in class. These journals will be collected in April and should include at the very minimum, a half page reflection on each short essay assigned, a paragraph for two of the poems assigned, and at least two pages for each week's chapter readings. 

These notebooks hope to encourage classroom discussions, participation, and thoughtful contributions. You will be expected to read from these in class each week as we discuss the material. These notebooks also give you valuable writing practice. Good writers write, and they write a lot. Reading journals also help you to focus your reading, engage with the material, and practice explicating, or making meaning out of a text. When we meet each week, you will better remember the parts of the story you wish to discuss, those parts you need clarification on, and the parts you may wish to choose to develop into your research paper. 

These journals require you to write regularly about what you are reading, but you have the freedom to respond any way that you choose. You can decide what you want to say. You can summarize a text, connect it to a personal experience, argue with it, imitate it, analyze it, or evaluate it. You can describe your emotional, intellectual, or philosophical response to the text. Consider, "What does the text mean to me?" and "What effect does this text have on my values, my beliefs, or my way of looking at the world?"

Instead of meeting in smaller literary circles, we will meet as one larger group. It is critical that you do your readings and come prepared to engage and discuss what we have read. 

Please pick up a simple composition notebook or journal for this assignment.