Reading Journals in a Variety of Classroom Settings

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Reading Journals in a Variety of Classroom
Settings
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Overview of Presentation

• What is a reading journal?
• How to prepare students for this activity
• Useful situations for reading journals
• Good and bad points
• Student feedback
• Conclusion and Q A

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What will it look like?
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Ideal Example of a Reading Journal from a Student

• Summary
• This article is about Burmese refugees that are
  living on the border between Thailand and Burma.
  They are the Kayan people whose women are famous
  for these long necks caused by wearing brass
  rings from childhood. As of 1/30/2008, the
  problem is that the Thai government doesnt
  consider them refugees since they do not live in
  refugee camps, and some are not able to leave for
  overseas countries for this reason. However, the
  areas they live in are not permanent villages
  either. They allow photographs for money, and
  they are tourist attractions. The United Nations
  refugee agency, the UNHCR, claims that around 20
  women were not allowed to leave Thailand because
  of Thailands rule. They say that these women are
  being kept in Thailand for zoo attractions.
• Reaction
• This is really sad since these women are clearly
  from a country (Burma) known for its human rights
  abuses, and are living in Thailand as refugees. I
  think the 20 women that have been rejected to
  emigrate should be able to leave. Isnt it a
  tragedy enough that they cant live in their own
  country, now they are being denied the right to
  live in a more prosperous country than Thailand.
  However, I do see the point of the Thai
  government, that the women are not living in a
  refugee camp, so they are not following the rules
  exactly. I hope there is a compromise made and
  they can leave Thailand.

• Discussion Questions
• 1.Whats your impression of the womens long
  necks? Is it beautiful? Is it ugly?
• 2.If someone is a refugee, should they be forced
  to live in a refugee camp?
• 3.Have you ever heard of any other groups of
  people who have unusual ideas of beauty?
• 4.Should the Thai government allow these 20 women
  to leave, even if it means breaking the rules?
  Why? Why not?
• 5.Should these women stop getting their photos
  taken for money and move into a refugee camp? If
  they do, maybe they can leave Thailand.

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What Students Do in Class(after their work is
done at home)

• Make groups of 3-4 students and have the desks
  arranged to face each other in a group setting.
• Students decide the order of presenters in
  their groups.
• Each student
• Shares his/her article
• Reads his/her summaries and reactions
• Asks the group the questions one by one
• Go on to the next student until all are finished.
  
• After grading considerations, teachers should
  join in the groups to listen and discuss.

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Skills Utilized in this Activity

• Research (of newspaper, magazine, or Internet
  articles)
• Reading
• Writing
• Summarizing
• Paraphrasing
• Expressing opinions
• Writing discussion questions
• Speaking (reading aloud, discussion questions and
  forming a habit of talking about the news)
• Listening
• Critical thinking

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A Typical Article for this Assignment
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How and Where to Find Articles

• Research on the Internet (a starting point)
• http//news.bbc.co.uk/
• http//edition.cnn.com/ASIA/
• http//www.honoluluadvertiser.com/
• http//www.starbulletin.com/
• http//www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/
• http//www.guardian.co.uk/

• Provided by the teacher
• Library sources
• Newspapers
• Magazines
• Whatever they have thats appropriate

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How to Prepare Students for this Activity How
to write the summary

• Read the article thoroughly.
• Look for the basic information in the article
• Who?
• What?
• Where?
• When?
• Why
• How?

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Summary Practice as a Group

• Feel-Good Recycling
• An organization in Ethiopia, SOS Addis, pays
  local women--some destitute, some HIV-positive,
  some both--to collect and recycle the
  ever-present plastic bags that litter the capital
  city of Addis Ababa. The project employs 50 women
  who can earn up to 65 a month, enough to pay for
  electricity, food, and water. According to the
  Ecologist (May 2007), half of the employees still
  need protective gowns, gloves, masks, and boots.
  But while there are kinks to be worked out, and
  the work itself is difficult, the rewards are
  decidedly local--which is why Ethiopians who have
  lived abroad and returned home hoping to make a
  difference launched the project. Program
  coordinator Anteneh Aberra says she hopes to
  eventually expand the group's efforts by using
  the recycled bags to create handicrafts and by
  convincing Ethiopian women to return to their
  traditional--not to mention reusable and
  biodegradable--straw shopping bags.

• Who?
• What?
• Where?
• When?
• Why?
• How?

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Specific Questions for this Article

• Who? Who does it involve?
• Why? Why is this necessary?
• What? What are the positive effects of this
  program?
• Where? Where is this program taking place?
• When? When did this happen (guessing)?
• How? How does the program work?

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Please see the separate handout provided

• Feel free to copy or use as you see fit.

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Good Reactions

• React to the idea with a judgment.
• Do you agree or disagree with the problem in the
  article?
• Have you learned anything from the article that
  you didnt know before?
• Express your true feelings about what you read.
• Often this ties in with your text, especially
  if its a discussion type text.

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Discussion Questions

• Students often confuse discussion questions with
  comprehension questions. Make this distinction
  clear.
• Good
• -How do you feel about?
• -What do you think about?
• -In your opinion,?
• Bad
• -In the article, how does the president feel
  about?
• -What does the word _____ mean in line 12?

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Ways to Write Better Discussion QuestionsA work
in progress!

• Remind students that they can only ask their
  classmates questions they themselves can answer.
  What is love? is not a good question!
• Practice writing questions together for short
  articles (like the Recycling article).
• Give one article for all students to read and
  write discussion questions about. Compile a list
  of acceptable questions from the class.
• Good discussion questions begin with Why? How?
  How do you feel about? What do you think about?
  
• Dont ask questions that are too simply answered!
  Make your partners think!
• Ask a question you want to really hear the answer
  to.

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Various Uses of Reading Journals

• Supplement a textbook
• Mandate a theme for the articles students should
  find, so that they match textbook topics.
• A stepping stone to research papers
• Students choose a set of say 3-4 articles on one
  topic to use as research for a research essay at
  the end of the term.
• Use for the heart of a reading class
• In addition to these reading journals, graded
  readers and/or book reports can be utilized.

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Supplement a Text(Example syllabus)

• Special, Advanced English Reading
• N-class C, Wednesdays 4th period
• Spring Semester
• 4/16 Welcome introduce class, text and rules
• 4/23 What is culture? What does it mean to be
  Japanese?
• 4/30 Unit 1-Foreign Neighbors discussion
• 5/7 How to write summaries, reactions and
  discussion questions
• 5/14 Unit 2-Kids and Culture discussion
• 5/21 Reading Journal 1
• 5/28 Unit 3-Strong Women discussion
• 6/4 Gender Issues in Japan, continued
• 6/11 Unit 4-Global Shopping discussion
• 6/18 Reading Journal 2
• 6/25 Unit 5-Meeting Strangers discussion
• 7/2 Reading Journal 3
• 7/9 Vocabulary and comprehension test for units
  1-5 from text
• Fall Semester

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Preparation for Research Papers(Example syllabus)

• Intermediate English-Writing
• 10/1 Welcome back, hand-back writing projects
  from the first semester, Discuss new schedule
• Write an essay about what you did this summer!
• 10/8 Writing stories using cue cards
• 10/15 Writing original stories
• 10/22 Writing summaries
• Introduce the reading journal activity
• 10/29 Writing reactions with practice paragraph
• Connected to the reading journal activity
• All articles you read for reading journal
  activities are connected to your final essay. It
  is research that will help you write your final
  essay.
• 11/5 Multicultural Workshop- Special Places
• Poem reading and examination
• Writing one for yourself
• 11/12 Reading Journal 1Checking and sharing
• Multicultural Workshop reading and writing
  activity
• 11/19 Reading Journal 2 Checking and sharing
• Multicultural Workshop reading and writing
  activity
• 11/26 How to make notations for your final
  essay-MLA style
• Multicultural Workshop reading and writing
  activity

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Use as the Heart of a Class(Example syllabus)

• Jiji Eigo-Reading through Media
• 4/13 Welcome and introduce the course
• Handle a lottery if I have to
• Explanation of reading journals, book
  requirement, and grading system
• Demonstrate how to write a summary for the
  reading journal
• 4/20 Reading Journal Discussion 1
• Movie viewing activity introduction
• 4/27 Reading Journal Discussion 2
• Book reading in class time begins. You must have
  a book by today, or you will be marked absent.
• 5/11 Reading Journal Discussion 3
• Book reading in class
• 5/18 Reading Journal Discussion 4
• Book reading in class
• 5/25 Reading Journal Discussion 5
• Book reading in class
• 6/1 Reading Journal Discussion 6
• How to write an essay, part 1
• 6/8 Reading Journal Discussion 7

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Good Points

• Helps in learner autonomy and student-centered
  teaching.
• Allows students to read and research more
  independently.
• Allows for four skills development outside of a
  textbook constraint.
• Lets students choose what they read (usually).
• Reduces textbook costs.
• Encourages interest in the news and the world
  around them!
• Establishes a habit of talking about the news.
• I saw ___ today in the paper. I think_____.
  What do you think the government will do?

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Bad Points

• If students dont do the work, they have little
  to contribute to in class.
• It takes time! Students, on average take around
  60 to 90 minutes to prepare one reading journal.
• You cant always guarantee the quality of
  conversation taking place (challenges are large
  classes that are unfocused or difficulty in
  understanding difficult summaries).
• In large rooms, sometimes noise is an issue. This
  noise takes away from the listening aspect.
• Students often choose short articles, and dont
  challenge themselves.

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Survey Results for a Reading Class These classes
utilized a textbook and graded readers
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Survey Results for a Writing Class This class
utilized a textbook and the goal was to write a
research paper at the end of term
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The Good and the Bad-Research Paper preparation
class

• Encouraging points
• 81.8 of students agreed, or strongly agreed that
  the activity helped them with their research
  gathering for their final essays.
• 76.4 of students agreed, or strongly agreed that
  the activity helped them in writing and
  expressing summaries of news articles.
• 76.4 of students agreed, or strongly agreed that
  the activity helped them expressing opinions
  about the articles they chose.
• Discouraging points
• Only 58.2 felt this helped them in improving
  writing discussion questions
• 63.6 felt it was too much work!
• Only 60 felt their groups discussed their
  journals actively during class time. This is
  largely due to the fact the class size of one of
  these classes is 40! Very hard to manage in a
  large class.

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The Good and the Bad-Graded Reader Processing

• Encouraging points
• 81.8 felt the activity helped them express their
  opinion about the book they read.
• 77.3 felt it helped them write discussion
  questions.
• 75 Also felt that the discussion questions they
  wrote were useful for discussion.
• 75 felt they actively discussed their journals
  in class time. This is due to class size being
  small, I think.
• 72.7 felt reading journals helped them to explain
  their graded readers to their classmates.
• Discouraging points
• 68.2 felt it was too much work.
• Only 59 felt it helped them writing and
  expressing summaries. I also noticed a few of the
  lazier/challenged students would sometimes just
  copy their summary from somewhere. Not often, but
  it seemed to occur with these lower-level
  students.

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Questions and Answers

• Thank you for attending today!