Dialectical+Journal+Assignment Independent+Reading+for+2nd+Quarter


 * Independent Reading Name**
 * Dialectical Journal Class Period _**
 * 2nd Quarter**
 * 200 Points**

A Dialectical Journal is a documented conversation you, the reader, has with the novel. While reading, there are often passages that are meaningful to the reader (YOU); these passages can make you think of a question, a feeling, a connection, etc. A Dialectical Journal allows you to choose passages from the text and comment on the passages expressing your thoughts, opinions, and ideas. As you read you will:

1. Locate passages in the novel that are meaningful to you 2. Write down the passage in its entirety, encase the passage with quotation marks 3. Cite the page number 4. Following the passage you will then write your thoughts, questions, insights, feelings, connections about the passage. These entries should be complete paragraphs of no fewer than 10 sentences. Your response, these responses should be analytical, personal, and/or thoughtful – you should demonstrate your knowledge of the text, characters, setting, etc. 5.  Each entry must be numbered 6. You must have 10 entries for you book 7. Below is a sample Dialectical Journal entry:

From the book, //Not On Our Watch, The Mission To End Genocide In Darfur And Beyond//, by Don Cheadle and John Prendergast with a foreword written by Professor Ellie Wiesel.

“I am a Jew who remembers when my people in German occupied Europe were condemned to isolation, hunger, humiliation, unspeakable terror, and death. Until almost the end of the war nobody came to our rescue.
 * //Passage 1//**

I am member of the human family that remembers that 800,000 human beings were massacred in Rwanda in 1994. They could have been saved, but nobody came to their rescue. The leaders of the world knew of the perpetrators’ intention and their victim’s vulnerability, but they failed to respond. Everything was known, and to the shame of civilized society, hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children were abandoned and then slaughtered.

I refuse to remain silent while the leaders of the world make excuses for failing to protect the people of Darfur. I am writing to voice my compassion for the victims and my anger at leaders who are timorous, complacent, and unwilling to take risks. Remember: silence helps the killer never the victim.” ~ Professor Ellie Wiesel, page x-xi

I have walked the grounds of the famed concentration camp Dachau, I have seen the gas chambers, I have seen the ovens, I have seen the pictures of the starving, cold, beaten, and dead. And I have known they were my family. They were persecuted for their beliefs, their culture, and their ethnicity. I teach about the Holocaust and the atrocities of genocide because I hope to educate so that “never again” can be a reality in my child’s life.
 * //Response 1//**

My husband and I will welcome a child into our family in December, she will be of multi-cultural heritage, she will be German, African, Cherokee, and Danish. I want her to be compassionate, loving, and accepting. A world where genocide lives is not compassionate, loving, nor accepting. I want her to embrace the different cultures and people of the world; I want her to be accepted and to accept others. We cannot allow the atrocity of genocide to continue.

I cannot ensure that my child is raised in a perfect world; but I cannot sit by and do nothing, so I speak out, I write letters to senators, I support Amnesty International, and I teach. Is that enough? No. Can I do it all by myself? Absolutely not. But I can help.