Journaling to Crack the Great Code

Where I'm at now spiritually, poised on the knife-blade of clamorous doubt, began innocently enough.  In February 2015 - almost a year ago - I started using a technique that I learned about in my education classes to tackle a particularly difficult book of literary criticism:  The Great Code:  The Bible and Literature by Northrop Frye (New York:  Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. 1981, 1982).

http://www.busyteacherscafe.com/literacy/readers_response.html

The technique, a reader-response journal, has been useful to me in the past.  For me, it functions as a substitute for that serious friend or learned professor - that person who listens carefully and responds intelligently as you try to sort out what you're reading.  This journal enables me to ask the questions that will lead me to a deeper understanding of the text and to make connections to my own life, reading and experiences.  It forces me to slow down, look up terms or do research. 

Plus, I have a wonderful record of my reading.  Grasshopper mind jumps from topic to topic and leaves no footprints, but reader-response journal leaves a clear, consistent trail of thoughts and ideas. The reader-response journal transforms me from a person who can only focus for 15 minutes at a time (oh, yeah, did I mention that I am kind of ADHD?) into a real thinker and writer.

I LOVE MY READER-RESPONSE JOURNAL!