Response Journals Revisited: Maximizing Learning Through Reading, Writing, Viewing, Discussing, and Thinking

Luke Lawson is a teacher and administrator in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

This book is a practical guide to the use of a writing tool called the
response journal. As defined by the author, a response journal is “a
notebook, folder ... in which students record their personal reactions
to, questions about, and reflections on what they read, view, write,
represent, observe, listen to ... and think and how they go about
reading, viewing, writing, representing, observing, listening or
doing.”

Parsons answers questions that teachers may have about response
journals, discusses how to get started in developing a response journal
(especially in literature and live and mass media settings), and offers
his views on the length of time that should be devoted to response
journals. He also provides teachers with detailed and thoughtful
strategies for evaluating response journals. This superb book lacks only
a caution that response journals should not become mere commentaries on
“here is how I feel about this or that”; to be effective, these
journals need to be the object of focused discussion.