Among the many instructional strategies available to educators seeking to deepen student engagement with texts and concepts, the double entry journal stands out for its elegant simplicity and remarkable versatility. As an educational researcher who has studied literacy development across grade levels, I have consistently found double entry journals to be one of the most effective tools for promoting critical reading, reflective thinking, and metacognitive awareness.
Definition and Structure
A double entry journal (DEJ) is a structured note-taking and response system that creates a visual dialogue between a text and a reader’s reactions to that text. As the name suggests, the journal page is divided into two columns:
- The left column typically contains direct quotations, observations, or information from the source material
- The right column contains the student’s personal responses, questions, connections, or analyses related to the selected content
This dual-column format creates a graphic representation of the active reading process, making visible the interaction between text and reader that characterizes deep comprehension and critical engagement.
Theoretical Foundations
Double entry journals are grounded in several robust theoretical frameworks:
Reader Response Theory
Louise Rosenblatt’s transactional theory of reading emphasizes that meaning emerges from the transaction between text and reader. Double entry journals make this transaction explicit by documenting both the stimulus (text) and response (reader reaction).
Metacognitive Development
By requiring students to document their thinking processes, DEJs develop metacognitive awareness—the ability to monitor, evaluate, and regulate one’s own cognitive operations during reading.
Social Constructivism
When shared in classroom discussions, DEJs facilitate the social construction of meaning as students compare interpretations and build upon each other’s insights.
Cognitive Schema Theory
The right column of a DEJ prompts students to connect new information with existing knowledge structures, facilitating the assimilation and accommodation processes essential to meaningful learning.
Instructional Applications
The versatility of double entry journals makes them applicable across grade levels, subject areas, and instructional contexts:
Literacy Instruction
In literature classes, DEJs help students track character development, analyze literary devices, question author’s choices, and develop personal connections to texts.
Content Area Learning
In science, social studies, and other content areas, DEJs support identification of key concepts, questioning of claims, connection of new information to prior knowledge, and application of disciplinary thinking skills.
Professional Development
For educators, DEJs provide a structured format for reflecting on professional readings, classroom observations, or instructional experiences.
Personal Growth
Beyond academic applications, the DEJ format supports personal reflection on experiences, identification of patterns in one’s own thinking, and development of self-awareness.
Implementation Strategies
Effective implementation of double entry journals involves several key considerations:
Clear Purpose Setting
Students need explicit guidance about the purpose of the journal and specific expectations for both columns. The focus may vary from identifying literary techniques to questioning historical claims to connecting scientific concepts to personal experience.
Modeling the Process
Teachers should demonstrate the DEJ process through think-alouds that make visible both the selection of content for the left column and the development of thoughtful responses for the right column.
Scaffolding Response Types
Providing sentence stems, question prompts, or response categories helps students develop more sophisticated responses. Examples include:
- “This reminds me of…”
- “I wonder why…”
- “This challenges my thinking about…”
- “The author seems to assume that…”
- “This connects to the concept of…”
Progressive Implementation
Beginning with concrete response types (summarizing, questioning) before moving to more abstract responses (analyzing, evaluating) helps students develop proficiency gradually.
Interactive Extensions
While DEJs begin as individual tools, their value increases when used as springboards for paired discussion, small group dialogue, or whole-class knowledge construction.
Variations and Adaptations
The basic DEJ format can be modified to serve diverse learning goals:
Triple Entry Journals
Adding a third column allows students to revisit their initial responses after discussion, demonstrating how their thinking has evolved through dialogue.
Quotation-Reaction-Connection Journals
This three-column variation separates personal reactions from connections to other texts, concepts, or experiences.
Dialectical Journals
This variation emphasizes the identification of tensions, contradictions, or multiple perspectives within texts.
Multimedia Journals
Digital implementations allow students to incorporate visual, audio, or video elements in both the source and response columns.
Collaborative Journals
Shared digital platforms enable collaborative journaling where multiple students respond to the same excerpts, creating a visual representation of interpretive diversity.
Assessment Approaches
Double entry journals offer rich opportunities for both formative and summative assessment:
Formative Assessment
Regular review of DEJs provides insight into students’ developing comprehension, analytical skills, and misconceptions, allowing for targeted instructional adjustments.
Self-Assessment
Students can evaluate their own entries using rubrics focused on depth of thinking, variety of response types, and growth over time.
Summative Assessment
Comprehensive evaluation of journals can assess development across multiple dimensions, including textual understanding, analytical sophistication, connection-making ability, and metacognitive awareness.
Process-Focused Evaluation
Having students select their most thoughtful entries and explain why these represent their best thinking shifts emphasis from quantity to quality.
Benefits for Diverse Learners
Double entry journals offer particular benefits for diverse student populations:
English Language Learners
The structured format supports language development by connecting text engagement with language production in scaffolded ways.
Reluctant Writers
The brief, focused nature of responses reduces writing anxiety while developing fluency and confidence.
Students with Learning Disabilities
The graphic organization of information reduces cognitive load and makes the reading-thinking process more concrete.
Advanced Learners
The open-ended nature of responses allows for differentiated depth and complexity without requiring separate assignments.
Challenges and Solutions
Despite their value, double entry journals present several implementation challenges:
Superficial Responses
- Solution: Provide specific criteria for quality responses, model depth through think-alouds, and implement peer feedback protocols
Selection Difficulties
- Solution: Initially assign specific excerpts for response before gradually releasing responsibility for selection
Inconsistent Completion
- Solution: Incorporate regular sharing of entries, implement accountability systems, and connect journal content to classroom discussions
Assessment Manageability
- Solution: Develop efficient review protocols, implement selective grading strategies, and incorporate self-assessment components
Conclusion
Double entry journals represent a powerful pedagogical tool that transforms passive reading into active dialogue with texts. By making the invisible processes of comprehension and analysis visible, DEJs develop not only deeper understanding of specific content but also the metacognitive awareness and critical reading skills essential for lifelong learning.
For educators seeking to move beyond superficial coverage of material to genuine intellectual engagement, double entry journals offer a structured approach that is simultaneously accessible to novices and capable of supporting sophisticated analytical work. Their versatility across content areas, adaptability to diverse learning needs, and capacity to generate rich assessment data make them an invaluable addition to any educator’s instructional repertoire.
In an educational landscape increasingly focused on the development of critical thinking and independent learning capacities, double entry journals stand out as a proven strategy that embodies these priorities while remaining refreshingly straightforward in concept and implementation.
