double-entry journal

I just finished writing my double-entry journal for Kenneth Bruffee’s article, “Collaborative Learning and the ‘Conversation of Mankind,’” one of the readings we’re doing tomorrow in Writing Pedagogy. I asked everybody to do a double-entry journal for one of the Cross-Talk articles and then to do one-paragraph reactions to the remaining three articles we’re discussing.

And it took me probably three times as long to read the article doing the double-entry journal as it would if I just highlighted and penciled in marginal comments. Agh. Of course it takes longer. That’s important information! And I don’t use that information effectively. That is, I’ve taken to using  double-entry journals to ensure that students do the reading in my 102 classes, but I think I’m really wasting their potential to build that community of knowledge-makers that Bruffee’s article discusses.

Strange to read Bruffee AND write a double-entry journal AND be aware that double-entry journals can be a hugely effective tool in the Bruffeeian enterprise — and I need to think how to do that. Give enough time. Use journals as part of class conversation. Use journals as springboards for writing. More conversation.

great class!

Last night we had works-in-progress presentations in the Writing Pedagogy grad class and I was energized by all the good work: Heejoo’s curriculum for teaching writing in a multilingual, multi-level ELL classroom; Angel’s investigation into how teachers’ comments on students’ writing (grades 6-12) affect students’ attitudes towards writing; Ginger’s lesson plans for portfolios in senior high school English using literacy autobiographies; Brad’s analysis of effective teaching for adult learners at a technical college; Amber’s lesson plans and tips for incorporating writing in math, social studies, and science in grades 9-12;  Kate’s research into memoir and her writers’ decisions as she constructs her own; Coko’s work on how to help teachers use poetry to teach writing; Amanda’s research journeys into travel writing; Colleen’s guides on how to write book reviews as a way to make reading-writing connections; Wendi’s field studies on early writers and how to help parents use a variety of methods to encourage early reading-writing connections; and my own journeys into the magical realm of how to manufacture time to do the writing one desires.

semester project

ack. double ack. ok, i’m feeling scattered. the two writing projects i have are blogs and double-entry journals. i’ve already got a good bit of an article on blogs, but it needs more research. especially field stuff. the double-entry journals fascinate me. i want to find out more about them. sounds like i’m leaning that way. this is a paltry paragraph fulfilling the assignment to discuss our projects. i promise more later. nah…i need to do this now.

ok, double-entry journals: they improve classroom discussion immensely. i mean, hugely. maybe more than any other tool i’ve used. ok. that’s pretty darn impressive. i want to find the research behind it. find some good theoretical articles. also, the sticky part for me is the second side, or the metacognitive side. the reflective side. lots of writers don’t really know what to do there. so is this a how-to article? maybe i should just stick with the research before thinking about the article. but i also want the theory, too. i know there are a lot of how-to articles. but what i’ve seen hasn’t been too helpful. ok, done.