Dr. Susan Stewart
English 300
Spring 2006

Reading Resource/Response Journals/Presentation (RRRJ)

RRRJs 1-4: Once you have read the YBR chapters assigned for each week, you'll need to find an article from a scholarly journal, not older than 3 years old, addressing an issue that Allen brings up. For instance, in Chapter 4, Allen discusses, among other things, Read Alouds. Your job is to figure out what Allen says about Read Alouds, find an article addressing Read Alouds, and make connections between Allen and the article (I'm only using Read Alouds as an example). Or, Allen might address in another chapter creating a class library. Your article need not say the same thing that Allen says. It can provide a different perspective. Journals that would be helpful include:

The Reading Teacher
Language Arts
English Journal
College English
Journal of Reading
Reading
Journal of Literacy Research
Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy
and many more

For each article, provide the following:

• MLA style bibliographic citation
• A brief summary of the article in your own words (approximately 200 words).
• A "Connection Statement": Connect the article to something you read in Yellow Brick Roads (see above) . What in your reading made this article stand out to you? What made you think it would be beneficial to your future students? (The connection statement should be approximately 100-200 words, written in complete sentences).
• The article, complete with your own annotations (required)

For RRRJs 5-7: You will see that during a three-week period, I have asked for RRRJs dealing with pre-reading, during reading, and after reading strategies. For the assignment that week, you should find an article from a scholarly journal (see above list) and for each article, provide the following:

• MLA style bibliographic citation
• A brief summary of the article in your own words (approximately 200 words)
• The GOAL of the strategy
• Identify a text (bibliographic citation, one sentence description) you would use for teaching this strategy in your future classroom, appropriate to your level of specialization (4-8, 8-12).
• A brief rationale for WHY you would use that text for teaching the strategy with your grade level of students and this particular activity (written in complete sentences).
• A brief write up (in complete sentences) of the sample activity you would use in teaching this strategy. Be specific. Identify a specific text (poem, short story, novel, etc. in your sample activity).

TIPS for Writing a Summary:

A summary is written for the purpose of describing, rather than evaluating or analyzing. The purpose is to provide a thumbnail sketch so that readers who have not read the original article (or for other assignments, the book)can decide whether or not the text is worth reading. Start your summary with the author's full name and title of the article.

Do NOT write your summary in the same organization structure as the essay is written: start your summary with the MOST IMPORTANT point the author makes, and then work down (skim the introductory and concluding sections to get a sense of the MAIN POINTS). The focus of the summaries is more on argument/main points/ideas rather than evidence (specific examples).

You may have noticed that many of the databases provide "abstracts" as well as title, author and publication information; these abstracts are summaries. You may have also noticed how Janet Allen is able to provide bibliographic and summary information on sources she considers important in the chapters of her book. Summary writing is a necessary skill.

I expect you to write your own summaries (summarizing a longer piece is a useful writing skill) to have rather than copying any abstracts/summaries that may exist in the databases or in the publications. Make sure your summaries are written in complete, grammatically correct sentences and in a fairly standard/formal tone. Use of first person, personal commentary, or evaluations--saying whether the article is good or bad--is inappropriate for this assignment. I expect that you will review a number of sources and choose ones which you think are good/useful.

Presentations:

When we begin reading Allen's text, one person (unless otherwise noted) will be giving a 15-minute presentation on your scholarly journal reading. You should provide a handout for each student in the class providing the bibliographic information and summary of the article (you can use the same summary you used for your RRRJ).

Other Responses:

On occasion, I will ask you to write responses to articles. Summarize the article and then provide your response. These should be a minimum of 2 double-spaced pages (not 1.5!)