In the case of Annie and the Old One, students can write about their relationships with and feelings for their grandparents or about specific items left to them by older relatives. Instructional conversations are dialogues between teacher and students in which the teacher listens carefully to grasp the students' communicative intent and tailors the dialogue to meet their emerging understanding. The discussions that arise in these instructional conversations provide students with ideas to write about in their literature logs or journals. In preparing a unit, teachers develop specific log prompts for each chunk of the literary selection. Prompts might ask students to write about a personal experience related to the story, elaborate on something that has happened in the story, or interpret an aspect of the story or theme.
Students complete a log entry at an independent center.
Small group discussions typically begin with some or all students sharing their logs, and new prompts often emerge naturally from these small group discussions. For example, after a class discussion about Annie's grandmother's interpretation of death, students can write in their literature logs about loved ones who have passed away and how they are remembered. Sharing these experiences with the class will prompt further discussion, giving the students more language practice and helping generate ideas for future literature log topics. Teachers can guide students by breaking a specific passage down into several key events, making it easier to understand. Teachers can help students recount what has happened in the story up to a cognitively challenging point.