On Keeping a Notebook

One of the summer readings I assigned is Joan Didion's "On Keeping a Notebook." I am grappling with this particular essay. I wrote an assessment for the essay per instructions from the AP teacher I am working with. The problem is, the assessment is hard. I don't think the students will do well. I want to use it to show them what an AP multiple choice question will look like, as well as what a potential essay question may look like. I was planning on letting them use their text (after all they will have text on the exam), but even still I'm afraid they'll shut down after looking at it. My thinking is that I need to review the text in depth on day 1 to give them a sense of what I'm looking for in close reading.

I'm trying to think about what I want them to get out of this text. Yes, an introduction to AP English III is ideal, but more importantly I want them to start thinking about non-fiction and notebook writing as literary writing. As I was doing research I came across the article On Keeping a Notebook in the Digital Age. Obviously a play on Didion's essay from 1968, the essay focuses on what it means to use technology and how it can serve as the new notebook. I was particularly interested in the following quote:

My preferred method for idea capture is something akin to Steven Berlin Johnson's idea of keeping a "spark file" 

This is a notebook on the computer. When one gets an idea the jot it down as one would in a notebook. Obviously this meshes with Didion's idea that when one writes in a notebook they are capturing something, rather than recording that day's events. With this "Spark File" the digital article continues,

He notes, "...Most good ideas (whether they're ideas for narrative structure, a particular twist in the argument, or a broader topic) come into our minds as hunches: small fragments of a larger idea, hints and intimations. Many of these ideas sit around for months or years before they coalesce into something useful."

That's the point of the notebook (or spark file). We're capturing ideas that may not be of use now, but they will be in the future. I want students to get that message. I want to use the daybook, but I'm afraid that I won't implement it properly. I don't want students just to see it as a place where they do warm-ups or take notes when I tell them. I want it to be something they reach for when they get home to jot an idea down, or a place to go when they have no ideas. Thus, bringing me back to why I had them read this essay in the first place. Didion is a great writer, but she isn't necessarily what the kids are interested in. Her structure can be hard to follow, as she starts the essay in the middle of events. She breaks the mold. I want students to see that she is writing a reflection that becomes literature, and they can do that too. Perhaps I'm wrong to assess them on this piece of text, or maybe I need to reconsider how I approach this assessment.