Week 8: Reading Diary Assesment

For my reading diaries, I've always always used the same format. First, directly after I've finished reading a story (or a section of a story if they are multiple pages) I type up a quick summary of the story just for my own records, which doesn't end up published. Then after each half of the readings I write an analysis of two or three of my favorite stories. I do the same thing after the second half.

It helps me to have both, the summaries for each story and the in depth look at a a few of the stories in the unit. I've found the short summaries help a lot when I'm deciding what story to rewrite for the storytelling assignment as well as the essay if I review the readings. I also try to write a sentence in my summary if there is something about the story that I want to mention in the reading review survey.

I also like having the deeper reviews for the few stories that I particularly like in each reading, which is what I end publish. Especially for the units which have twenty or more short stories, you don't have time to think about each of them deeply and critically. Without the instructions on the Reading Diary assignment saying to focus on your favorites, I wouldn't have done this. However, I feel like I get a much better understanding of the stories that I talk about in the reading diaries.

With my reading diary posts, I always try to include one picture from each story I talk about. This isn't as helpful when the stories aren't from an illustrated book, but it still helps me remember what a main part of the story was. Where there is an illustration from a book that the story comes from, the picture is very helpful in remembering more of the details of the story which the picture depicts. I think having pictures in my posts helps a lot by breaking up the information. That is why I add the picture directly after I finish talking about one specific story.

Looking back, I do think me reading diary posts are helpful, but they are most helpful when I also look at my short summaries/notes from every story.  I think that gives the analysis that I publish more context. Overall, I think the reading diary is very helpful. I think the combination of a short summary for myself and deeper exploration of a few of the stories for a blog post helps me a lot when keeping track of past readings.