1. Dialectic Journals Mrs. Fogelson PHHS English
Warm-up: What are keys to a good conversation with someone? Should they copy everything you say? Should they pay attention to your words or not? How can conversations with others make your life better?

2. What is it?
A dialectic journal is a conversation between you and what you are reading. You simply write down passages that make you think or interest you and write about your thoughts. This process is an important way to understand a piece of literature. By writing about literature, you make your own meaning of the work in order to truly understand it. When you do this yourself, then the text belongs to you--you have made it yours. The passages are there for everyone to read; however, the connections and interpretations are uniquely yours. You are neither right or wrong in your response. So be willing to take risks and be honest.

3. What is it for? cite significant text as evidence for your thoughts
bring your own background and experience to the reading;
construct your own meaning from the text of the novel;
provide direct feedback to yourself and your teacher on your thoughts and understanding as you read;
gain insight into the plot, action, and significance of events and details in the novel.
provide a springboard for Socratic Seminar

4. How do I use it? Left Side
Left side—in text citation. Write the line that you find significant because of
the action in the story line
the conflict that arises
the word choice or imagery used
characterization presented
Mood, style, or tone
Author’s background
Connection to personal experience or other texts
Your opinion about the author/character/event/writing
Etcetera, etcetera, and so forth

5. How do I use it. Right Side This is where your thoughts go
How do I use it? Right Side This is where your thoughts go. They should be at analysis, evaluation, or creation level. Some sentence starters might be…
I really like/dislike this idea because. . .
This idea/event seems to be important because. . .
I think the author is trying to say that . . .
The author is using (literary element) to…
If I were the author I would change/improve this part by…
This passage reminds me of a time in my life when . . .
If I were (name of character), at this point I would . . .
This part doesn't make sense because . . .
This character reminds me of (name of person) because . . .

6. Examples
The following examples are from evaluations of “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Tell Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe.
Think:
Why are these citations significant?
Why are the responses significant?
When you write your own response, use your sentence starters if necessary.

7. What does it look like? Quote/Page # Inference/Critical ?
Text to text/ text to world connection
1. “It was about dusk, one evening during the supreme madness of the carnival season, that I encountered my friend”(1).
1. Poe uses the setting of festivities to create irony and mirror the insanity of Montresor.
Today there are still carnivals in Italy, especially during the Roman Saturnalia and just before the Roman Catholic “Lent”.
2. “I said to him --"My dear Fortunato, you are luckily met. How remarkably well you are looking to-day” (1).
2. Poe uses Fortunato because it means luck. Ironically, he is very unlucky in this story.
Divergent—names of factions and names of individuals have specific meanings. Four—four fears.
3. ‘“It is not the engagement, but the severe cold with which I perceive you are afflicted. The vaults are insufferably damp. They are encrusted with nitre“’(2). 3.
4. ‘"Enough," he said; "the cough's a mere nothing; it will not kill me. I shall not die of a cough“’(2).
4. Your turn with a partner.
5. "A sign," he said, "a sign." "It is this," I answered, producing from beneath the folds of my roquelaire a trowel”(3).
5. Your turn on your own. You can choose your own quote if you’d like.

8. What does it look like? Quote/Page # Inference/Critical ?
1. “I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad?”(1).
1. Poe shows the reader an unreliable narrator by disclosing that he heard all things.
2. “I think it was his eye! yes, it was this! He had the eye of a vulture --a pale blue eye, with a film over it. ” (1).
2. I think Poe uses the eye as the object of disgust because it increases the guilt of the narrator.
3. “You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me”(1).
3. Your turn with a partner.
4. “I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him”(1).
4. Your turn with a partner.
5. “His eye would trouble me no more”(3).
5. Your turn on your own. You can choose your own quote if you’d like.
What does it look like?

9. What does it look like? Quote/Page # Inference/Critical ?
1. “before the future began”…(1)
The narrator seems to cling to this memory. What makes it so important?
2. “Every once in a while Dede hears the clink of a rum bottle against the rim of his glass”.
Perhaps the father drinks because of the tension in his family or the tension in his job.
3. Your turn with a partner.
4. Your turn with a partner.
5. Your turn on your own.
5. Your turn on your own. You can choose your own quote if you’d like.
What does it look like?

10. Closure
How do you think using dialectic journals will help you connect to literature?