From the Malden High ELA Department

Reader’s Notebook Possibilities

If you’re having trouble understanding or following the plot, you can…

• Look up vocabulary. Write the word and the dictionary definition.
• Summarize each chapter (or, with difficult text, each page or paragraph).
o Note important details. List important events chronologically.
o At the end of the chapter, complete this sentence for each character:
(A character) wanted….but….so….
• Ask clarifying questions. Then try to answer your questions through re-
reading, thinking about the question, or asking someone.
• Visualize the text. Describe in your own words or draw a picture of the
characters, setting, or a particular scene.
• Pay attention to your attention. If you can’t concentrate on the story, why
not? What could you change to help you pay better attention?

To get a deeper understanding, you can…

• Make inferences. Inferences are conclusions you can draw based on
information that’s available and your own experiences. For example, if you
saw a child in a stroller with a woman pushing it, you might infer the woman
was his mother. But be careful to check your inferences when new
information comes up – that woman could be a kidnapper or the baby sitter or
his aunt.
• Ask deep questions. Deep questions usually begin with “Why” and don’t
just have a single answer. Think about the possible answers.
• Make connections. You can make text-to-self connections(what in the book
reminds you of your own life?), text-to-text(what in the book reminds you of
another book?), or text-to-world(what in the book reminds you of something
on the news, or that you’ve seen?).
• React. How do you feel about the characters or what’s happening in the
book?
• Predict. What do you think is going to happen next? Why?
• Pick out important, interesting, or confusing passages. Explain why you
picked the passage from the text. Use the passage to make inferences, ask
questions, make connections, react or predict.
• Look at the writer’s technique. Pick a rich passage and explain how the
passage is put together. Look for and explain symbols, figurative language,
and imagery.
• Think about the big ideas and the writer's overall purpose. Pick a passage
and explain how it connects to one of the big ideas and the writer's overall
purpose.
 From the Malden High ELA Department
How to do a Dialectical Journal
On the left side, choose an interesting
quotation from your reading. Pick
something that catches your eye, seems
important, or confuses you. You could
also pick something that is beautifully
written or that you think might be
symbolic or foreshadow a future event
in the book. You also could choose to
follow a particular idea through the
text. Be sure to follow the quotation
with the page number of the reading
assignment. The name of the book
should be at the top of the page. (p. 2)
On this side, put your own words.
Your entry could take any of these
forms:
• Clarifying questions about a concept
or moment that is confusing you.
Always try to answer your own
questions!
• Deep questions about the meaning of
the text or the ideas being discussed.
• A reaction to the text – how do you
feel about what’s happening or about
the characters?
• Connections between the text and
you, the text and other texts, or the
text and the world.
• Predictions about what might happen
next.
• Inferences, or guesses about the text
based on details from the text and
your own ideas or experiences.
• Observations about the author’s
technique and how the technique
connects to the story’s theme.
• Observations about how this
moment in the text connects to a main
idea of the text.
Name:___________________________________________
Malden High School Reader’s Notebook Rubric
Purpose: The Reader’s Notebook is a record of all of the student’s thinking as he/she reads. It can take the form of active reading notes (questions, reactions,
inferences, predictions, summary, connections, or analysis) done while the student reads or of the dialectical journal, where students select key passages from the text
and, using a double column format, provide their notes in response to that passage. Students should do regular entries as they read. Reader’s Notebooks are to be
assessed for both completeness and for thought. Reader’s Notebooks should also be regularly used in class as source for ideas and questions for discussions, a place to
add additional notes about the reading, and as a reference for writing. Students should be encouraged to go back to their notebook to re-read and add thoughts.

Text or Assignment:_______________________________________________________________________________________________

Number of Entries Required:_______________ Number of Entries in Notebook:________________ Score:_____________

Criteria 4 3
Quality of Notebook entries…
Responses Demonstrate use of multiple types of
reading strategies.
Are frequently supported with
specific references to the text.
Show student putting thought and
effort into understanding the reading
through generalizations,
questions/inquiry, inferences, or
theory building.
Reflect the student’s voice, including
personal and critical reactions to the
text.
Notebook entries…
Demonstrate use of multiple types of
reading strategies.
Are often supported with specific
references to the text.
Show student putting some thought
and effort into understanding the
reading.
Reflect the student’s voice, including
some reactions to the text.
May have evidence of re-reading,
revision or rethinking of ideas.
2 1
Notebook entries…
Demonstrate use of at least
three different types of
reading strategies.
Sometimes are supported
with specific references to the
text.
Show student putting little
thought and effort into
understanding the reading.
Notebook entries…
Demonstrate the use of one
or two types of reading
strategies.
Are rarely supported with
specific references to the
text.
Show student putting
minimal thought and effort
into understanding the
reading.

Show evidence of re-reading, revision

or rethinking of ideas.
Completion Meet or exceed the number of entries Meet the number of entries required. Are less than the number of Are substantially
required. entries required. incomplete.
Are readable.
Are organized and readable; include May have some problems in May have some problems
page numbers, dates. organization and/or in organization and/or
readability. readability.

Your goal for the next round of journal entries should be: