Response Journals Revisited; Maximizing Learning through Reading, Writing, Viewing, Discussing, and Thinking

This timely book shows teachers how to help students find thoughtful ways to explore and reflect on what they are reading, viewing or discussing. Offering a comprehensive view of response journals, this remarkable book serves as a flexible and multidimensional teaching tool that encourages student to use their own experiences to make what they read, write and view more meaningful.

Response Journals Revisited provides teachers with everything they need to successfully incorporate response journals into their teaching. It includes a step by step explanation of what response journals are, why and how they are used, the specific skills they develop and how they are formally evaluated.

This detailed handbook offers

• a comprehensive catalog of questions to cue personal response on everything from books and read-alouds to television, movies, and media;
• sample student responses;
• guidelines and rubrics that will save teachers valuable classroom time;
• ready-to-use checklists and evaluation forms for students and teachers;
• tips on organizing student/teacher conferences;
• a glossary of terms.

Teachers who strive to create independent learners will learn how to help students uncover deeper meaning in whatever they read, write, and view.

Les Parsons taught a variety of subjects, including English and language arts, for more than thirty years. As an English consultant, workshop leader, and university lecturer, he has worked with classroom teachers at all grade levels. His work with innovative curricular initiatives ranges from implementing response journals across the curriculum and writer's workshop techniques to designing effective evaluation systems and promoting practical equity policies.

Les' latest book, Bullied Teacher: Bullied Student, tackles the controversial issue of how adult and student bullying combine in a school to produce a bullying culture and then details what to do about it.

Here is how Les describes his approach to writing and education:
"I think through writing. During the process of writing, my goal is not necessarily to publish, but try to understand a little bit more about my world and myself. As a lifelong educator, I write to discover the best ways to learn and the right ways to teach. If I uncover a kernel of truth about a unique perspective on an educational issue that I haven't encountered before, I try to publish in order to share what I've learned.

"As teachers, we can make a difference. If we can equip young people with the right tools, skills, and knowledge, and furnish them with an equitable, compassionate view of the people around them, they will make a difference in the world they inherit."