Elmhurst College

 

DIALOGUE JOURNAL

The Dialogue Journal is a double-entry notebook, preferably a pocket-sized one (4 X 6) that you can carry in your pocket or book bag. You will be using opposing pages for your writing: on the left page, you will jot down quotes, key ideas, fragments of information, and specific observations of your day-to-day learning, and on the right page, you'll think through writing about what you make of what you collected on the left page.

Bruce Ballenger calls this kind of journal "a conversation conducted across the spiral binding of your notebook." Think of the Dialogue Journal as a place where you not only record what you're learning, but to "talk back" to yourself about what this learning means to you.

Here is a recommended format for this special kind of journal:

 

Notes on what you've learned

  • On the left page, collect observations, sketches, noted impressions, passages copied out, jottings on reading, or other notes on your in-class or out-of-class learning.
  • This is the place to collect "field notes" of your learning: What are you seeing? What are you hearing? What are you learning?
  • Carry this notebook so that you can jot down these impressions as they come to you in class, in the space between classes, at home in the evening. . . anywhere.

Your responses

  • On the right page, think through writing about what strikes you about what you see on the left page. Write quickly, without censoring your responses. This is the place to make notes on your notes, responses to your responses.
  • Whenever your writing stalls, look left and find something else to respond to.
  • Some questions to ponder as your writing include:
  1. What strikes me about this?
  2. What are my first thoughts when I consider this? And then what? And then?
  3. What does this make me think about or remember?
  4. What else have I read or heard that connects with this?
  5. How do I feel about this?
  6. Does it lead me to change my thinking in any way? If so, how?
  7. Has this experience helped me to develop or demonstrate my PPP skills and dimensions? How?

Response questions are from Bruce Ballenger, Beyond Note Cards: Rethinking the Freshman Research Paper. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook, 1999.

 Possible Reactions to "Notes" or "Responses"

Knowledge or experiences that:

  • are confusing to you.
  • you need to put on hold because you are not sure how they benefit you now.
  • help you to know who you are as a person.
  • help you in your daily life
  • help you in your professional life.
  • Other

 

ASSIGNMENT:

Suggested assignment to give you practice in writing a Dialogue Journal.

Write about 3 classes, activities, or experiences in your Dialogue Journal. Be sure to describe each experience and reflect on how each of the experiences relates or will relate to your current life, future life and/or professional life.