Week 8 Reading Diary: Review Week

After re-reading the instructions and reading through my Reading Diary blog posts, I feel like I followed the directions each week. The only thing I have not been doing, that might be beneficial in the future, is adding pictures to my blog posts. Although pictures are not required, they can be very helpful when it comes to remembering what I have read!

As far as strategies go, I feel like there is just a handful that I implement. Even though the instructions say not to get caught up in trying to summarize the plot of the stories, I often find myself doing that. However, I do incorporate comments as to what I liked or disliked about the story. Additionally, I often compare the characters or plots of the stories to people or situations in today’s culture.

Overall, I would say that my Reading Diary blog posts are pretty equal in length. I also noticed that I included quotes in a lot of my posts from the Aesop units. The quotes were usually the moral of the story, so I felt it was helpful to include those as a reminder of what the story was about. However, perhaps in my future posts I will include quotes from the other stories, even if it is not a moral.

I find it easier if I take notes after I finish reading through the unit, to the stopping point that is. Typically, I read through the half of the unit, then return to the table of contents to pick out my favorite stories, or at least the ones I remember the most. Also, I almost always refer back to the notes that I took in my Reading Diary when I am working on the other assignments. I use the Reading Diary to pick out my favorite reading from the entire unit, and then use that story for my Storytelling blog post. I will also refer back to my Reading Diary when I am trying to brainstorm ideas for my Essay blog post.

Altogether, I think the Reading Diary is very helpful. Not only does it force me to do the readings in a timely manner, it helps me be an active reader. Rather than just skimming through the readings, I am looking for common elements in the stories, what I like or dislike about the stories, etc.