Though I encourage you to participate in the Dialectical Journal throughout the respective week, your initial 2 contributions (rows) should be completed by class on Wednesday. All 6 of your contributions should be completed by the end of the day Friday each week.
Nearly every week in this course, you will be participating in a dialectical journal about that week’s readings, group discussions, ideas, etc. Dialectical Journals are a collaborative space where you should share your thoughts with one another to generate ideas and connections about the course material.
As explained in the syllabus and in the journal, each week you will be responsible for making 6 contributions to the journal.
- You should make at least 2 entries. An entry would be a quote / paraphrase of a text or something that was brought up in group discussions (left side of notebook) and a response to a quote / paraphrase (right side of notebook)
AND
- You should make at least 4 comments in response to others’ entries. (This should be a comment in the margin.)
Again, at least 2 of your 6 entries must be in the journal itself (i.e., a quote in the left column and your thoughts on that quote in the right column would count as one entry). You should always feel free to add more as the thoughts arrive or are generated (depending on how the mind works). Also, make sure that you include your name or initials after your entries in the journal… just to make sure you get credit for your contributions.
As you think about the contributions you might want to make, here are some possible approaches to consider:
- Draw connections between texts, discussions, media (noting intriguing points of consensus and dissensus)
- Play the believing and doubting game with a text (especially as an approach for finding ways to see value in texts you “hate” or problems in texts you “love”)
- Place a reading in context (perhaps by engaging some of the work to which it responds or considering the historical moment of its production)
- Reflect about how your own experiences have shaped your reading of the text.
- Highlight unanswered questions that a text raises and speculate about how you might begin to answer them.
- Critique the limitations of an argument (what issues / perspectives does it exclude? How might the argument be made more complex or nuanced?)
- Raise questions about aspects of the reading that are unclear or difficult to understand.
Completion Assessment
The assessment of dialectical journal completion is based on the appropriate number and type of contributions. You must write at least 6 contributions that are good-faith efforts at making claims, extending discussion, raising questions, or otherwise being a part of the ongoing conversation.
Dialectical Journals are due by the end of the day Friday each week.
Examples of Dialectical Journals
