Double Entry Journal
Left Side
Use this side for collecting.. Students
record things that they see:
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Quotes from text
Reasons
Observations
Parts of a whole
(This can be as focused or as loose as the
teacher wants it to be. It should become
looser as the students become more adept
thinkers.)
Right Side
Use this side for connecting. Students
reflect on what they have recorded in the
right hand column:
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To yourself
To the world
To other texts
To things you know
To causes or effects
To a whole
Additional Journal Suggestions
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Before; After
Lines of the Text Say; I Inferred Between the Lines
Literal Words; Figurative Meaning
Theme; Evidence of Theme
Words on the Page; Picture in My Mind
Opinion; Proof
Questions; Facts
Hypothesis; Evidence
Prediction; Evidence
What I Know; What I Wonder
Quote or Picture from the Text; What It Makes Me Wonder About
Cause; Effect
Compare; Contrast
Text Feature; Purpose
Information from the Text; New Insight
Double Entry Journal
Literature Example
Students were instructed to look for tree imagery in their homework assignment.
“She was sixteen. She had glossy leaves
and bursting buds and she wanted to
struggle with life. . . . where were the
singing bees for her?” (11)
This quote again supports the tree as a
symbol of Janie. As she is becoming a
woman, the tree’s buds are bursting.
Hurston again uses the symbol of the bees
– her dream for her companion that
completes her.
“Nanny’s head and face looked like the
standing roots of some old tree that had
been torn away by storm.” (12)
Hurston describes Nanny in tree imagery
that is opposed to the blooming of Janie.
This tree imagery is negative – it is an old
tree and the roots are torn up. It is not
growing, healthy or complete. Nanny
looks at life negatively as opposed to
Janie’s hopeful and optimistic outlook.
While Janie looks for love and
companionship in a marriage, nanny looks
for Janie to be protected by marriage.
“The vision of Logan Killicks was
desecrating the pear tree.” (13)
Again, Hurston uses a negative image. If
Janie and her dream are symbolized by the
tree, Killicks is desecrating them both. He
tries to mold Janie – make something out
of her – which violates her as a person.
Her marriage to him has also shown her
that marriage does not lead to love, so it
has desecrated her dream as well.