Sample Reading Logs - models

Reading log for 9/30/07
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
p.3 to 9 – stopped before “Sanctuary”

(specific summary with predictions and author analysis of writing)
I just started reading Speak and so far the protagonist, Melinda seems like she is having a bad day. She already identifies herself as an outcast and I’m wondering if anything has happened to her if her school year is starting off so badly. Judging by the way Anderson describes Melinda I get the sense that she is sad. She uses a lot of images of a person who is alone. Once she gets to school, nothing improves. It seems the bus ride was just a preview to how bad her first day is going to go. Between the students and the teachers, Melinda seems like the outcast she describes herself as. With the exception of Heather, who is a new girl, Melinda can’t seem to catch a break. Maybe Heather will help make her feel happier and they will become good friends.

(Text-to-self- making connections from the book to things that happen in your life)
Text

“There is no point looking for my ex-friends. Our clan, the Plain Janes, has splintered and the pieces are being absorbed by rival factions. Nicole…anyway.” P.4

Comments

I remember when I was in high school and there were so many different cliques. It seemed that summer between middle school and high school changed everything. My old friends from middle and I weren’t getting along so well anymore and I knew I would have to start over, only I wasn’t as sad about it as Melinda seems to be. I was ready to look at it as a new beginning. Plus if I was an outcast, I’m not sure it would have bothered me so much.

(Text-to-text – making connections from the book I am reading now to a book and/or movie I have read or seen in the past.)
Text
“Older students are allowed to roam until the bell, but ninth graders are herded into the auditorium. We fall into clan: jocks, country clubbers, idiot savants, cheerleaders, human waste…”p.4

Comments
This passage remind me of the movie “The Breakfast Club” where each of the main characters represents a member of a different group. In the movie though despite their differences, they all seem to be able to find a connection to forge a relationship in one day. Come to think of it, the reality of that movie seems less realistic than the one that Anderson presents in Speak.

(Text-to-World- making connections from the book with things that are happening in the world.)
Text
“We are studying American History for the ninth time in nine years. Another review of maps skills, one week of Native Americans, Christopher Columbus in time for Columbus Day, the Pilgrims in time for Thanksgiving. Every year they say we’re going to get right up to the present, but we always get stuck in the industrial revolution…”p.6-7

Comments

It seems in real history that things repeat themselves. In Melinda’s world the cycle seems to go that way too. Each year she mentions that she has studied the same material and still they haven’t gotten past one particular historical event. I kind of feel that is how it is with things going on in our country as well as in the middle east… they keep making promises of change, but nothing ever changes.


Setting – using the time and place of a story
Text
“Welcome to Merryweather High”… p.3

Comments
It is not specific about what year the book takes place in, but it was written in 1999. I get the sense that Anderson wanted it to be timeless in that it could happen in any high school across America at any time. I don’t know where MerryWeather High is yet, but it seems like a normal high school in our country.