Reader Response Journal

Complete each section of the Journal Entry and remember to SUBMIT the page at the end. Once you submit you can’t change your posting, so be sure you’re done and happy with what you’ve posted. I recommend writing out the Summary, Commentary, Take-Away, and Bottom Line beforehand and saving them in their own document. Then copy and paste them into the journal entry online. Doing it this way allows you to easily resubmit if something should happen to your original submission. (See below for Journal Entry examples.)

• The SUMMARY should be no more than TWO to THREE sentences and is meant to serve as a reminder to you about what the book was about. Ideally, the first sentence should include: setting, main character(s), major plot points, and major obstacle(s), including how it all ends. The second sentence should be a theme statement. You don’t need to include every happening of the book in the summary, but it should have some detail. Summaries too long will lose points.
• WHAT IS A COMMENTARY?
  • an exploration ideas in writing, moving reader’s understanding of text to a deeper level;
  • an interpretation of text; a response to the text;
  • movement away from the text;
  • an examination of the questions the text brings forth and possible answers;
  • speculation on what is going on in the author’s mind;
  • a springboard for personal reflection;
  • an exploration of the emotions associated with or brought up by a text;
  • an opportunity for the reader to take possession of the text by making personal connections;
  • personal and honest;
  • is a WRITE TO EXPLORE space.

What a Commentary is not?

• It is not a summary or retelling of the plot.

There are no specific requirements as to what should be written (I do give you some suggestions below if you need help getting started). I only ask that it be minimum 300 words. For your Commentary, I’m not looking for your best writing—I’m not even expecting you to edit/proof-read it.

Historical Fiction Commentary: How does your book fit into what we studied in class about the time period? How did reading the book help you to better understand the time period? Be specific. (USE THIS WRITING PROMPT ONLY WHEN SPECIFICALLY INSTRUCTED)

You can use poor grammar, misuse punctuation and misspell galore (you can even use the first-person pronoun and the words stuff and things)! I’ll be looking for commitment—do you take the necessary time to genuinely reflect on what you’ve read. Under-committed responses will lose points.

The following questions will help you to react openly and honestly to what you read. These are only suggestions to get you started—do not think that by giving an answer to all of the questions makes a good commentary. You will soon discover your own questions, build relationships with characters and authors in your own way, and discover new techniques to help you become an active reader. Your own ideas will become the primary source for your reading journal entries.

-- Did this book make you laugh? cry? cringe? smile? cheer? explode? Record some of your reactions.

-- Are there connections between the book and your own life?

-- What character would you like to be in this book? Why?

-- Would you like to acquire a personality trait of any particular character? Describe the trait & explain why you like it?

-- Would you have used a different name for any character or place? What name? Why?

-- What makes you wonder in this book?

-- What confuses you in this book?

-- Write down some of the text that made you stop and think or prompted questions or was just a favorite line. Explain what

attracted you to this text and what you would like to remember about it for the future.

-- What questions about this book would you like answered?

• The TAKE-AWAY is for lines from the book you don’t want to forget. Something that was said that made you pause and appreciate what was written. You need to have at least one line for each entry. All quotes from books need to have the page number from which they came. You will lose points for not including the page number. In addition to having the quote, you also need a sentence explaining why you like the quote.
• The BOTTOM LINE is whether or not this was a good book to read—would you recommend others to read it or skip it? Why?

A POINT OF CLARIFICATION: The Reader Response Journal Entries you post here are for books you read independently and NOT for the books we read together in class.

EXAMPLE ENTRY (only Summary, Commentary, Take-Away, and Bottom Line)

SUMMARY: Tris Prior and Tobias Eaton (Four) ventured out of Chicago, whose faction system was shattered, where she finds the Bureau who intend on further destroying the society in Chicago and must stop them. Grief is not as heavy as guilt, but it takes more away from you.

COMMENTARY: This book made me want to walk away from society and just curl up in a ball for the rest of my life. So yeah, I guess you could say it made me feel very miserable. When Tris died I screamed, punched my book, and then threw it on the floor, it truly made me explode. The way in which Tobias reacted, the whole standing still, doing nothing thing really made me just realize even more how when something like that happens to you it is impossible to understand, you just have no idea what to do and what is happening. it definitely spark some serious sadness within me. This book made me fell empty. Not only did it end a series that I loved and cherished, all of the deaths and reactions just made me feel like I was falling into a pit of sorrow. I would want to take Tris's trait of selflessness, but with a bit more control. I would not want to take it to the point of death. But Tris's brother completely deserted and betrayed her by serving her up on a platter to Jeanine, yet she was able to forgive him, or at least wanted to and gave her life to save Caleb, and all the people of Chicago. That is a quality that I admire she acted in a forgiving way and offered her life instead of his. Allegiant really shows the importance of forgiveness and fighting for what you believed in. Tris strongly believed in keeping the memories of the people of Chicago and she died fighting for that. This also draws on something brought up earlier, the idea of factions. It shows how it is horrible for people to be placed into categories that define them and are limited in who they can be. Why can they not be Erudite and Candor, Dauntless and Abnegation? Why can't people, whoever they are be free? No restrictions should be placed on humans and society. No one should have to be placed into "Little Boxes."

TAKE-AWAY: "Since I was young. I have always known this: Life damages us, everyone. We can't escape that damage. But now, I am also learning this: We can be mended. We mend each other." (526) This truly shows the importance of companionship and always having someone at your side.

"All I can do is stand still-I fell like if I just stand still, I can stop it from being true, I can pretend that everything is all right. Christina hunches over, unable to support her own grief, and Cara embraces her, and all I'm doing is standing still." (490) I liked this line because the author successfully shows how when you find out something terrible, sometimes you just cannot do anything, so you just stand still and pray it was just a dream.

BOTTOM LINE: I would recommend this book. Although it was the worst book in the series (in my opinion), it is still an amazing book. In this way, it is very similar to Mockingjay. There are definitely some slow-moving parts to the book, but if you just wait, the book's pace picks up and it becomes very interesting. This was because it really makes you feel empty, but not in the bad way. It portrays all of the emotions well and everything that happens really conveys strong emotions of sadness. It really takes you on a roller coaster of emotions.