Double Entry Journals and Learning Logs
by Marilyn Joyce

"...education's job today is less in purveying information than in helping people use it--that is to exercise their minds."

Theodore Sizer. Horace's Compromise: The Dilemma of the American High School

How can we challenge our students to exercise their minds? One answer is the double-entry journal and learning log. Educators can use double-entry journals and learning logs to drive students' thinking processes. Journals and learning logs are also excellent vehicles for assessing student progress because they provide insight into what students are learning and reveal the development of their thoughts.

Definition

According to the American Heritage Dictionary a log is "a regularly kept record; journal" and a journal is " a persona record of experiences and reflections; diary." People keep journals and logs for a variety of reasons. Professional and amateur writers use journals to record their thoughts, generate ideas for future writing, and experiment with language. Scientists and social scientists record the observations from their field work in logs or notebooks. Many professionals, including teachers and librarians, keep journals during internships or independent study projects to record and reflect upon their professional growth.

In the K-12 classroom, this informal and personal type of writing has many names. These include journals, logs, learning logs, diaries, daybooks, thinkbooks, double-entry journals, dialectical notebooks, or field notes. Nevertheless, they share a common purpose: to help students make meaning of experience and resources and to help students think.

"While some of us who assign these personal notebooks might argue about what they should be called...we would not disagree about their purpose and value: writing helps our students learn things better." Fulwiler, 9

Double-entry drafts and learning logs take many shapes and forms. It is helpful to know what double-entry journals and learning logs look like in the classroom and how librarians have adapted these techniques for teaching information skills.

What are Double-Entry Journals?

At the elementary level, educators assign double-entry journals to facilitate student learning in social studies, literature, math, and science. Writing in this format helps students take notes, relate new information to personal experience and academic learning, and generate new ideas. Double-entry journals can include visual representations such as story boards, charts, webs, and diagrams as well as writing.

Lucy Calkins suggests using a "double-entry ledger" (263) to help students interact with and make meaning of text. The ledger consists of a loose-leaf notebook. The left page is a copy of the text students are reading. The right page consists of two columns. One is for students' initial interpretation of the text and is completed before class discussion. The other is for revised interpretations that occur after class discussion and reflection.

Vaughan provides specific examples of her third graders' double-entry journals. Students keep one side of a spiral notebook for their raw data. They record their response to their data on the opposite page.
Data

Response

For one lesson, a student's data consisted of a diagram of a scientific experiment on how batteries work. On the other side, he wrote what he learned: "Experiments help me provide my guesses," (Vaughan, 72). For a unit about trees, a student's data consisted of her notes on different classifications of trees and pictures of different types of leaves. On the other side, she drew pictures of a tree found on the playground and classified and labelled the types of leaves (Vaughan, 71).

Librarians assign double-entry journals to help students 1) interact with new information in a variety of formats, 2) relate information to prior knowledge, and 3) generate ideas for class discussions and writing assignments. Each student divides a page from her notebook in half. The content column at the left might consist of a summary of a chapter from a book or an article from a magazine, four or five meaningful quotations from a text, a transcript of an interview, notes taken while viewing a video, or a visual representation of information. The right side is reserved for responses.

Many students have problems generating responses for their double-entry journals. To ease them into the process, I give them a list of possible responses. They can include, but are not limited to, one or more of the following:

My students also evaluate the quality of their resources in their double-entry drafts. I suggest they respond to one or more of the following questions based on the objectives listed under steps in the research process published in the Information Skills Guide for Maine Educators. sources?
Responses from double-entry drafts are great discussion starters. One of my favorite lessons involves helping students distinguish between fact and opinion. I give students two newspaper articles, a news story and an editorial, and assign double-entry journals. In the content column, students classify each statement as fact or opinion and justify their responses. Students then share entries from their double-entry journals in small groups or during large group discussions. I become a facilitator, encouraging students to elaborate on key points, moderating debates that develop when students have different interpretations or analyses, and disentagling misconceptions. After the discussion, students spend five to ten minutes writing in their journals about what they learned from the activity.

What are Learning Logs?

Double-entry journals are useful tools for helping students interact with and make meaning of information; in contrast, learning logs stress reflection. Learning logs are narratives of what students learn and how they learn it. They include information from resources, personal observations, a comparison and/or contrast of two or more sources, and questions or hypotheses. In their learning logs, students reflect upon and revise their thinking based on new information from class discussions, conferences, or the natural evolution of their thoughts. They also discuss their goals, develop a plan of action for accomplishing their goals, and evaluate their progress.

Several of my partner teachers successfully incorporate learning logs into their research units. One English teacher has her students keep learning logs during the traditional research paper unit. The students use their learning logs to trace the evolution of their thinking, discuss potential solutions to obstacles encountered during the research process, and develop time management strategies. A social studies teacher has her students keep learning logs when they work in teams to create a city using the simulation computer program SimCity. With the help of their logs, she holds students accountable for their use of time and determines what her students learned from the simulation and the cooperative learning experience.

"I Want to Try Using Double-Entry Journals and Learning Logs with my Students. Where do I Begin?"

Many librarians who use double-entry journals and learning logs to teach information skills suggest beginning small. Use a learning log to assess a skill you are teaching. After a mini-lesson on using key words to locate information followed by a hands-on activity, have students write a learning log entry. Ask them to describe what they did during the hands-on activity and what they learned from the experience. Write brief responses to their learning logs. Avoid one or two word reactions such as interesting, good job, or great. (See the chart below.) Instead use your natural curiosity. Ask a question about something you want to know. If the student's response lacks details, ask questions that will force him to add specifics. If the student is frustrated because her strategy did not work, suggest an alternative procedure. Or, share a personal experience that parallels the one described by the student. A sincere interest in students' work is a great motivator.

Try teaching a lesson that uses a double-entry journal as a tool for notetaking. Have students do a double-entry journal for a video. Periodically stop the video so that students can record information in the content column and write a response. Write your own double-entry journal. Then at the end of the video, have students sit in a circle and share their responses. Make sure to read from your journal too.

Bloom's Taxonomy as an Assessment Tool

For librarians, double-entry journals and learning logs are excellent formative assessment tools. With formative assessment, the goal is to determine students' placement on a continuum of developmental skills and challenge students to move to a higher developmental level. The act of determining a student's placement on the continuum of skills and moving the student to a higher level of critical thinking is the assessment process.

Bloom's Taxonomy is a tool for assessing students' level of critical thinking and helping students develop cognitive thinking skills. (See the Bloom's Taxonomy chart located in the appendix.) Knowledge and comprehension are lower level thinking skills. Application and analysis fall in the middle while synthesis and evaluation are at the top of Bloom's cognitive thinking continuum. The verbs in the lower half of the chart are actions reflecting that level of critical thinking. My goal is to move students to a higher level in the hierarchy. Below are the steps in my approach to the assessment process:
  1. Read the students' learning logs or double-entry journals and determine their level of thinking using Bloom's Taxonomy.
  2. Use Bloom's verbs to pose a question or suggest an action to take that will move students to a higher level of critical thinking.
  3. Give students adequate time to reflect on previous learning and/or locate the information needed to answer the question or take the suggested action. Then have them respond to the question or suggestion in their double-entry journals or learning logs.
  4. Assess student progress through a conference or by reading and writing responses to journal and log entries.
  5. Note: The goal at this stage of the research process is to help students make meaning of new information and articulate ideas. Precision in writing (e.g. correcting spelling and grammatical errors) is left for the last stages of the process if the end product is a composition.

My students also learn to use the Taxonomy to create their own questions and assess their level of critical thinking. This leads to independent thinking.

"Thinking is not a program or a text or a hierarchy of skills...each mind must do its own creating, forming and inventing--indeed, make its own meaning.

(Kirby and Kuykendall, 18)

It is important to remember that Bloom's Taxonomy is only a tool. It is not a thinking process. Students do not necessarily have to move sequentially through each level of the hierarchy. Sometimes it is appropriate--and necessary--for students to function at the knowledge level. For example, a student describes how to open an on-line encyclopedia and locate an article on his topic in his learning log. He does not need to progress to a higher level of critical thinking to prove he has mastered a basic computer skill. A few students are capable of leaping from a lower level to the highest level of thinking. After paraphrasing several difficult passages from an article about physician-assisted suicide, a student concludes that the author has a personal bias. She defends her evaluation of the article in her learning log. Her presentation is logical and supported by relevant passages from the text. This student does not need to move through the intermediate stages of the hierarchy to reach the highest level of cognitive thinking. Many students, however, are not able to make this leap. They need our help moving sequentially through the Taxonomy. Finally, some students will not be able to progress to the highest level of the critical thinking hierarchy. Our job is to help them reach their highest potential for a given assignment and to challenge them to develop higher level thinking skills in future assignments.

What Does this Type of Assessment Look Like in the Library?

Below are some incidents from case studies I conducted from 1993 through 1996. I have used actual student names except where otherwise noted.

Scenario 1 - Patrick's Career Search
Scenario 2 - Josh's Learning Log
Scenario 3 - Jessica's Heredity Project
Scenario 4 - Kate's Investigation of the Bermuda Triangle
Scenario 5 - Jeff's Visual Representation of a Period of American History

The Benefits of Double-Entry Drafts and Learning Logs
Why I am an advocate for learning logs and double-entry journals?

1. Students make their own meaning of information in a nonthreatening environment.
My students learn that making meaning is a process. Their ideas can evolve and change as they interact with information and reflect on it. As a result, they feel free to experiment with different learning strategies and techniques. They can test their hypotheses.

Meanwhile, my partner teacher and I are always available to facilitate the process. We help students work through misinterpreted or confusing information. We assist students as they move beyond the knowledge and comprehension levels of Bloom's Taxonomy into more challenging levels of critical thinking.

2. Teachers and librarians become partners with their students in the learning process.
In traditional classrooms and school libraries, students frequently look at the librarian or teacher as the threatening individual who assigns the grade. Their success or failure depends on our evaluation.

Through the use of learning logs and double-entry journals, I become a partner with my students. We work as a team as they develop their ideas. And I must confess, I take great pleasure in our conversations about what they are learning (content) and how they are learning (process). I especially enjoy those moments when one of my questions enables a student to make the new connection. I share the excitement that comes from a student making a new discovery.

The learning log and double-entry journal are communication tools. In their logs, students share with me their goals and assess their personal progress. They receive credit for recognizing obstacles and seeking solutions, even when those solutions fail. Evaluation is no longer threatening because students receive credit for taking risks.

3. Learning logs and double-entry journals are concrete evidence of student learning.
I suggest teachers include student learning logs in their writing portfolios. One of my partner teachers keeps copies of student work on file. When parents asked about their son's progress, she showed them his learning logs and double-entry journals with her written comments. The parents appreciated her record of their son's progress. They also gained some insight on how she interacted with their child. With learning logs and double-entry drafts, the student, teacher, and librarian are held accountable for their share of the learning process.

Conclusion
Use whatever procedure works best for you and your partner teacher. Should students keep spiral notebooks for each subject or should they be used only for major projects? Should student work be stored in the classroom or the library? The references below will provide some excellent ideas about how to use learning logs and double-entry journals at all grade levels.

Give learning logs and double-entry journals a try. Do not expect perfection from your students the first time. You will need to work with your partner teacher to train students in the fine art of writing substantive responses. Nevertheless, the end results are worth the effort.

Works Cited
Calkins, L.M. (1986). Art of teaching writing. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Fulwiler, T., Ed. (1987). The journal book. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Kirby, D. and Kuykendall, C. (1991). Mind matters: Teaching for thinking. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Maine Educational Media Association Ad Hoc Committee on Information Skills. Information skills guide for Maine educators. Augusta, ME: Maine Educational Media Association.
Vaughan, C.L. "Knitting writing: the double-entry journal." Coming to Know: Writing to learn in the intermediate grades. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Recommended Readings
Atwell, N., Ed. (1990). Coming to know: Writing to learn in the intermediate grades. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
A collection of essays written by classroom teachers who describe how they use double-entry journals and learning logs to facilitate student learning. Contains numerous student models.

Joyce, M. (1995). "The I-Search paper: A vehicle for teaching the research process." School Library Media Activities Monthly, 11:6, 31-32, 37.
An overview of the I-Search paper, an alternative to the traditional research paper. The I-Search paper is a revised and edited version of a student's learning log.

_____ and Tallman, J. (1997). Making the writing and research connection with the I-Search process: A how-to-do-it manual for librarians and teachers. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers. Contains model lessons on how to train students to write double-entry journals and learning log entries.

Schurr, S.L. (1989). Dynamite in the classroom: A how-to-handbook for teachers. Columbus, OH: National Middle School Association. Has excellent explanation of Bloom's Taxonomy. Appendices include extensive lists of Bloom action verbs, generic questions to use with assignments, and hands-on activities.

Tallman, J. (1995). "Connecting writing and research through the I-Search paper: A teaching partnership between the library program and the classroom." Emergency Librarian, 23:1, 20-23. Contains extensive list of questions to use when conferencing with students about their learning logs and/or writing comments in learning logs.

Journal assignments and assessment in Maine Samplers III & IV
Assign single- or double-entry logs to be handed in with a first draft of a project. This is a good way to keep track of the research process. Students could be asked to keep a running commentary on a specific aspect of the process, such as use of beyond-library-walls sources.

Logs can be checked at each or any stage of the research process. Students can use logs for self-assessment or peer assessment.

III Twilight Struggle 1 [includes example - includes TOOL];
IV Bearstone (5); Indian Winter (2); Sweetest Fig (2c); Yang the Youngest (1).

Information Literacy: Interpretation Skills Example Form.

October 1997
Maine Educational Media Associaton

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