Double Entry Journal
Double Entry Journals are set up so that you can dig deeply into sections of a text to explore them further. Read the book your teacher assigns for this assessment.  Through the Double Entry Journal format, show your understanding of the book by identifying and analyzing the author’s point of view and the cultural context of the book.  You will also be asked to discuss various literary devices used by the author. Do NOT summarize the book!!

While reading, use Post-it notes to mark paragraphs, sentences or phrases that you may have a question about or that catch your attention. These selections may seem interesting, perplexing, or significant, even if you’re not quite sure why at that point.  After finishing a section of the book (not the entire work), return to those passages you marked to explore your questions further. These will be potential entries for your journal.

You should select passages you think are important and relevant to the plot. When copying the selected passage, don’t shortcut; write the entire quote to be used as your example.  Do not rephrase the quote but analyze, ponder and discuss it.

Different Ways to Keep a Double Entry Journal

Left Hand Side	Right Hand Side	
Quotes from the text	Visual commentary (drawings, visual analogies, doodles)
	
Quotes from the text	Written reactions, reflections, commentary, musings (“Hmmm…”)
	
Quotes from the text	Connections
•	Text to text
•	Text to Self
•	Text to world
	
Observations, details revealed by close reading	Significance
	
What the text says…	Why the text says this…
	
Questions: “I wonder why…”	Possible answers: “Maybe because…”	
Quotes from texts	Questions (Clarifying & Probing)
	
Quotes from texts	Social Questions (Race, class, gender  inequalities)
	
Quotes from texts	Memories
	
Quotes from texts	Naming Literary or Persuasive (Rhetorical) Techniques

Literary Devices         
Sample List for Double Entry Journal 

Allusion:   a reference to a well known person, myth, historical event, Biblical story, or other literary work

Antithesis: opposition, contrast of ideas with balanced construction.
Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more. (Brutus in Julius Caesar)

Flashback:  serves as an interruption in the action to show a scene that took place earlier.

Foreshadowing:  a hint of things to come-often an unpleasant event.

Hyperbole:  a wild exaggeration (“My feet are killing me”).

Irony:  a situation that is the opposite of what you would expect.

Metaphors:  a comparison between two unlike things that does not use the words like, as or than.

Oxymoron: a self-contradictory expression – examples include jumbo shrimp and the sounds of silence.

Paradox:  a statement whose two parts seem contradictory and yet they make sense with more thought. In ordinary conversation, we might use the paradox, "Deep down he's really very shallow." 

Personification:  speaking of an inanimate object as human.

Simile:  a comparison between two things using the words like, as or than.
Symbolism: something that means more than what it is; an object, person, situation, or action that in addition to its literal meaning suggests other meanings as well. 
Theme: an underlying thought, idea, or statement about life that a writer weaves into a literary work.. The author communicates the theme through the characters, plot, and various literary devices. Generally, a theme has to be inferred by the reader.
Tone: the writer's attitude toward the material and/or readers. The tone may be playful, formal, intimate, angry, serious, ironic, baffled, tender, depressed, etc.

Understatement:  the opposite of a hyperbole, downplaying the severity of a situation.