Response Journal Directions:

1. In your reader’s journal, you should record your ideas, questions, comments,
interpretations, predictions, reflections, challenges – response you have to the books you are reading.

2. Keep the reader’s journal with you while you’re reading. Stop as you read and take time to write. Capture your thoughts while they’re fresh in your mind. Date each entry and note the pages read during that reading session. I expect entries every 25 pages or less.

3. This should NOT be a summary of the plot though references to what is occurring in the plot are essential as you respond. What you are noting is your engagement with the reading.

4. Suggested starters:

-As I read the opening chapter, I think…

-I changed my mind about…because…

-So far the most interesting character is…because…

-I am confused by…

-I predict that…

-I like the way the writer…

-Repeated imagery I see includes…

-Repeated figurative language or motifs I see includes…

-This part of the reading reminds me of…

-This part of the reading makes me realize…

-While I was reading today, I pictured…

-I’d like to tell the writer…

-I’d like to ask the writer…

-If I were (name the character), I would (wouldn’t) have…

-What is happening is realistic (unrealistic) because…

-One thing I’ve noticed about the author’s style is…

-I agree with (disagree with) the writer about…

-A good title (or a better title) for this novel would be…because…

-If I could talk to (name the character), I would say…

-I think the main things the writer is trying to say are…

-I think the writer must be…because…

-(Name the character) reminds me of myself because…

-(Name the character) reminds me of…because…

-This book is similar to (different from) other books I’ve read …

-I would change the ending…

-The most important word (sentence, paragraph) in this book is…because…

Novel Annotation Directions:

1. Circle unfamiliar words and write synonyms in the margin.
2. Highlight or underline descriptions of characters and their relationships, important
quotes, setting information, plot details, and anything related to theme.
Label reason for noting.
3. Put a box around symbols and literary devices (personification, metaphor,
similes, alliteration, hyperbole, irony, allusion, etc.)
4. Record personal connections that you make with the novel in the margins.
5. For each chapter, compose at least two discussion questions that a teacher might ask.
6. At the end of each chapter, write a brief summary.

Welcome AP Literature 2009-2010!

I will begin providing you here with some critical thinking resources that will prove invaluable.