Double+Entry+Diaries

= Strategy Name: Double Entry Diary =

Strategy Description:
Double entry diary is a during reading strategy where the reader is writing to learn/comprehend. This strategy is similar to Cornell Note-Taking because the paper is divided in order to allow the student to show the teacher what he/she is thinking in reaction to the text.

Course:

 * Applied Communications—a 9 week course to support reading and writing.
 * 5 classes of 28-30 students
 * 7/8 grade
 * Classes include regular education students, special education students with IEP goals in reading and writing, instructional learning disabled students, gifted and English Language Learners.
 * Content area classes where strategy can be used for comprehension, questions, or vocabulary.

Rationale:

 * Students need to interact with the text for better comprehension.
 * Strategy offers a lot of flexibility as to its focus—fix up, questions, connections, visualization, inferences, or monitoring.
 * Strategy is a good one to model in front of students in order to model the behavior of a good reader.
 * Informal assessment as I get to “see” into their thoughts as they read.
 * Can be modified or adapted. For example, I can write down lines or phrases I want them to react to/ notice.

Diverse Learners:
Diverse learners will benefit from oral and visual aspect of the modeling of the strategy. Others learners are not as supported by this strategy. Though there might be a way to turn this into a foldable which would support kinesthetic learners.

Procedure:

 * 1) Divide paper in half (or use hand out, or reader’s notebook entry with a line drawn down the middle).
 * 2) Left hand column if for students to copy lines or phrases from the text (perhaps summaries).
 * 3) Right hand column is for students to react to those lines—a place for critical thinking.
 * 4) In beginning, choose the focus for the right hand column. Later the students can move to choosing for themselves.

Potential Issues:

 * Not modeling enough.
 * Students saying they can’t think of any questions, comments, connections, etc.

References/Materials:

 * **Strategy from:** Tovani, C. (2000). //I read it, but I don’t get it: Comprehension strategies for adolescent readers.// Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.

1 . Double entry diaries ||
 * In binder:**