Response Log Hints

Keeping a response log is simple. It's just a matter of thinking about what you are reading and recording your thoughts.

Here's the process:

  • Read the selection
  • Find out what it is saying
  • Reflect
  • Make predictions about what might happen next (if it is a novel)
  • Think about some connections it has to your own experience.

Write about what you have read.

Be sure to enter a date for each entry.


It's not necessary to follow a strict pattern for your responses.
Remember that the purpose of a response log is to help you think about what you are reading.

STUDENT RESPONSE LOG EXAMPLE

Response Log: On The Road Author: Joanne Findon Date: Nov. 17, 03

In this piece the author creates a connection between the lives of two young girls living in two different ages, 140 years apart. I think what she is trying to say is that the things we have to deal with growing up are very similar. We have the same emotional battles inside and outside.
I felt almost like I shouldn't be reading the diaries of the girls. Diaries are supposed to be private, but that’s what made it interesting. It was like being able to look at the world through that person’s eyes.
The thing that really made this piece interesting for me was when I began to see the connection between the girls. They were both running away from home, and happened to meet each other on a road. It was an interesting twist to find that it was a great grandmother and great granddaughter.
I began to think about age and what happens when you get older. One of the important messages for me was that old people were young once and passed through the same struggles in their own youth.
The main idea involves two diaries. One is being written in 1994, and one is being written in 1854. Both young girls are writing about running away. With each entry, we can see how there is some sort of connection. Then it becomes clear that there is something like a time warp that connects the experience of the two young girls together. They actually meet each other in a ghostly encounter. It would make a really interesting science fiction movie. .