Using Dialectical Journals to Analyze Texts

1. Using Dialectical Journals to Analyze Texts Secondary ELA Curriculum

2. Opening activity (Session Packet) In your journal, respond to the quote below and relate it to the editorial cartoon. “For the love of money is the root of all evil….”

3. Objective Using a variety of resources and strategies, the participants will learn how to incorporate dialectical journals into their classroom.

4. What is a dialectical journal? Dialectical : art or practice of arriving at the truth through logical arguments Journal : personal record of events, experiences, and reflections kept on a regular basis • a dialogue or conversation between ideas in a text (words read) and the ideas of the reader (thoughts, questions, insights, and ideas) • an intellectual response that is anchored to a personal observation, concern, or experience

5. Why use Dialectical Journals? • Actively engages students in reading • Increases critical reading skills • Increases critical thinking skills • Provides a place for students to model style of professional authors while developing their own style • Provides focus for class discussions

6. Dialectical Journal Templates

7. Original Dialectical Journal

8. Dialectical Journal

9. Revised DJ Template

10. Symbolic Dialectical Journal

11. 3 Question DJ Template

12. Dialectical Journal: Planning • Choose a text • Choose focus for journal • Choose template(s) for journal • Provide explicit instructions on journal assignment • Provide model passage and analysis (how)

13. Choosing Passages from the Text: Look for QUOTES that seem significant, powerful, thought provoking or puzzling. For example, you might record: • Effective &/or creative use of stylistic or literary devices • Passages that remind you of your own life or something you’ve seen before • Structural shifts or turns in the plot • A passage that makes you realize something you hadn’t seen before • Examples of patterns: recurring images, ideas, colors, symbols or motifs. • Passages with confusing language or unfamiliar vocabulary • Events you find surprising or confusing • Passages that illustrate a particular character or setting

14. Responding to Text: Simple For the RESPONSE column, you have several ways to respond to a text: • Raise questions about the beliefs and values implied in the text • Give your personal reactions to the passage • Tell how it reminds you of your own experiences • Write about what it makes you think or feel • Argue with or speak to the characters or author

15. Responding to Text: Complex • Analyze the text for use of literary devices (page • Makeconnections between different characters or events within the text • Make connections to a different text (or film, song, etc…) • Discuss the words, ideas, or actions of the author or character(s) • Consider an event or description from the perspective of a different character • Analyze a passage and its relationship to the storyas a whole Refer to pages 5 - 17

16. Application • Journal • Session Packet • Literary Analysis Terms (8) • Character Traits (37) • Tone and Attitude (31) Texts • I Timothy 6:10 • Enron Editorial Cartoon • “For the Love of Money” • The Pearl • “Killed by Greed and Oppression” • Steinbeck: Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech

17. Primary Source and Visual “For the love of money is the root of all evil ….” I Timothy 6:10

18. Song Lyrics “For the Love of Money” - OJays http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nujQHu_j3Sw Activity 3 Questions (Deeper Reading) • What does it say? • What does it mean? • What does it matter? Choose a minimum of three lines from the song lyrics and write a paragraph response that incorporates the three questions.

19. Literature – The Pearl Read passage Consider the following: Coyotito, the baby of Kino, a poor Mexican fisherman, and Juana, his mate, is bitten by a scorpion. Juana sucks the scorpion poison from Coyotito’s wound. When the baby falls ill, the grief-stricken parents take him to the only doctor in the neighboring town. • Character motivation • Methods of Characterization • Imagery • Symbols • Motifs • Plot • Setting • Conflict • Theme • Allusion • Conflict • Syntax • Diction

20. Literature # 2 – The Pearl Read the passage Consider the following: After being rejected by the doctor, Kino and Juana go to the beach where they take their boat out into the sea. He sees an enormous oyster lying alone under a stone, and through its open lips, he glimpses a phantom brightness. Without hurry, he gets the oyster and holds it against his chest. He violently kicks the immersion stone and goes back to the surface. Kino looks at the big oyster and he hesitates to open it, but Juana, her hand over Coyotito's head, encourages him. He forces the lips open with his knife and there it is, a pearl "perfect as the moon", big as a gull's egg. The news that Kino found the "Pearl of the World" spreads over the brush houses even before he gets home, and then goes on to the stone and plaster village. • Character motivation • Methods of Characterization • Imagery • Symbols • Motifs • Conflict • Theme • Allusion • Conflict • Syntax • Diction

21. Expository – “Killed by Greed and Oppression” Read passage Consider the following: In India the ancient custom of the bridal dowry has become a vicious and increasingly murderous way for a husband's family to acquire material goods • Thesis • Claims or assertions • Author’s purpose • Audience • Author’s bias • Tone • Connotation • Text structure • Syntax

22. Discussion and Reflection How will you apply these strategies to achieve the best grade your classroom?

23. Resources • NTC’s Literary Terms (on order) • What’s the Big Idea? – Jim Burke (on order) • Deeper Reading by Kelly Gallagher • Tools for Thought by Jim Burke • http://www.greece.k12.ny.us/instruction/ela/Index.htm

24. Thank You • Questions • Comments • Exit Slips