AP Lit & Comp Literature Journals with Self Assessment Lesson Plan

My students keep a literature journal all year, beginning with their summer reading assignment. I have my students bring their journals to class every day, and during the first week of class they complete the Summer Journal Self Analysis assignment, learning to evaluate their own choices. In general, the first Journal Self Analysis shows them that they summarize the plot too much and that they lack one or more of the required elements altogether. Most students also learn that of the four requirements, they have one that dominates their journals. These are good lessons for journaling, but also for writing AP essays. The reliance on plot summary sabotages many a good writer, and this is one of my foundation lessons in avoiding it.

I revisit the Journal Self Analysis at the beginning of the 2nd Semester, to make sure we are still doing purposeful journaling.

This lesson plan includes my Journal Assignment (Student Handout 1), which I give to students prior to the Summer Break and which you can modify to match your own titles. It also includes a first week of school Journal Analysis Assignment, and additional Instructor pages with options for using the journals in class, grading considerations, and directions.

Copyright:

AP Literature & Composition Literature Journals with Self Assessment Lesson Plan by Melanie Renee Hazen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.