Double Entry Diaries

Double-Entry Diaries are a version of two-column note-taking and are tailored for guiding students in monitoring their comprehension.

Good for nonfiction text

Can be used throughout the year to mark different types of thinking.

Can be quickly drawn as a t-chart

Left column focus can vary depending on purpose.

Question / Answer/Inference
1. / 1.
2. / 2.

Introduce Double-Entry Diaries

1.  Ask students to divide a sheet of paper in half vertically (hot dog fold). The left side of the notes is reserved for specific information from a text (such as a short passage, quote, factual information, or a summary) or specific types of thinking you would like the students to do (such as ask questions, make connections, make predictions).

2.  The right column provides students the opportunity for their written responses or the students’ personal reactions and connections to what was written in the left column.

Examples:

Science Class: Article about phosphate poisoning caused by tainted blue jeans

Question / Answer/inference
1.How did the poison get into the jeans? (think question) / 1.  From a leackage of a phosphate in a semitruck while on the road.
2. why were the jeans in with the chemicals? / 2. maybe because a little room was left and they did not want to get another truck out.

Social Studies Class: “Lessons from the Crash of 1929”

Quote from article / Connection to quotation or Question
1.  . . 1952 nearly 1 in 4 americans were unemployed. / 1.  Hoovervilles – my mom’s story of depression. How can we avoid that?
2.  . . . secretly working to enrich themselves / 2.  Were people doing that before the crash of ’29?

Step 2: The above example asks students to consciously make connections to what they are reading by considering how what they know might relate to new information. In addition, students should verbalize how their personal connections contributed to a greater understanding of a passage. For this activity, the teacher could instruct students to label the right column: “What this means to me.”

Other comprehension strategies that could form the focus for the
right column of a Double-Entry Diary include:

·  Questioning: “I wonder . . . ”

·  Making inferences: “I think . . . ”

·  Clarifying: “I am confused because . . . ”

·  Determining importance: “This is important because . . . ”

·  Visualizing: “I would describe the picture I see in my head as . . . ”

·  Connecting: “ I am reminded of...”

Step 3: With practice, students can begin to use Double-Entry Diaries as an ongoing method of tracking their thinking.

From

Tovani, Cris. (2004). Do I Really Have to Teach Reading? Content Comprehension, Grades 6-12. Portland, Maine; Stenhouse Publishers.

Tompkins, G. E. (2003). Samples from “Compendium of Instructional Procedures” In Literacy for the 21st century, 3rd ed. (p. 473). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill.