Reading Logs

ENGL 101

Children's Novel Reading Logs

As the syllabus notes, you are responsible for keeping a log of your reading as you make your way through the children's literature novel you choose. The expected length of this log is in the 2-4 page range. How you complete this assignment depends on whether you've begun reading your novel or not. If you have not yet started reading, you may complete option A or B. If you're in the midst of reading, or have finished, complete option B.

Option A
A log, like a diary or journal, is something into which you make a number of written entries. For your reading log, you should expect to make a minimum of three entries per book; some will want to make several more entries. The three that are required are:

a pre-reading entry, in which you should discuss your prior knowledge about the book (gleaned from the book cover, conversations with people who have read it, etc.) and what you expect of the book (predictions about plot, or tone, or theme, or ???). This entry is likely to be the briefest.
one or more in-the-middle-of-reading-the-book entries, in which you might discuss any literary elements you notice (like point of view, tone, possible themes, recurring ideas, stylistic elements, etc.), discuss the book's characters, and comment on how well you like the book as a reader. You should also make note of anything that you find confusing in the book, as well as form some predictions about what might happen next.
A final entry following completion of the novel, in which you will likely record your final thoughts about the book. You might also want to use this space to remark on how accurate your predictions were (it's quite likely that many of them will have turned out to be incorrect--don't worry if that's the case), and whether you think that the book would have a place in an elementary school classroom.

Option B
This option assumes that you have completed the novel before you begin to write. In it, you will describe your reaction to the book in the form of a synthesis (remember, from Mosaic of Thought?), and include your sense of the novel's place in the elementary classroom. Specifically, you might approach this by doing some of the following:

Make note of the important people, events, themes, and ideas in the novel
Discuss your author schema as a result of reading this novel (that is, describe what you know about the author's style, choice of topics, etc.--easily done by imagining what you would expect to find if you read another novel by the same author)
List and discuss any questions you had about the novel that you felt were left unanswered
Describe text-to-self, text-to-world, and text-to-text connections you made
Consider the inferences you made while reading the novel, and any implications they might have for your understanding of the book
Discuss the appropriate school audience for the book (would it suit primary kids? 6th graders? Why?), as well as whether it would make for a good read-aloud piece
Describe ways that you can imagine using the novel in a grade-school classroom, both within the category of "reading"/language arts and beyond it (for example, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory might have some interesting tie-ins to chemistry or cooking, while Holes could be connected to calculating the volume of dirt removed from each hole)

Note: Your reading log must be typed. I will be grading it on your level of engagement with the text--that is, on how well you show through the log that you paid close attention to the book, and gave considered thought to it as both a piece of literature as well as a text for use in the classroom. Grammatical correctness, while always a plus, is not the foremost concern in this writing. However, you should read over your log before printing it to make it as readable as possible.