When Wineberg captured the essential differences between how a historian thinks and a student (even a very good, A.P. level student), he did it by having historians and students "talk back" to the text.  The dialogue with the text captured the thinking process of each reader, and illustrated the differences between "historical thinking" and just decoding or comprehending the text.  The chart blank below gives a very basic form for kids to follow when doing this activity, but it can be done just as well on a blank piece of paper.  (The chart below works well when students are reading text on the internet because it can be saved to their desktop, then uploaded to a site like www.turnitin.com or sent to the teacher's email).

On the left side of the chart, students record text from the source they are reading (along with page numbers, if they want the reference or the teacher wants them to note it).  On the right side of the chart, students write down their thinking process as they are reading the text.  The teacher should model this technique several times in class before asking students to read and complete a dialogue journal independently.  (This also works well as a popcorn reading/guided practice in the early stages:  Johnny reads three sentences, then calls, "popcorn, Anna!"  Anna now chooses between reading or saying aloud what she was thinking as Johnny read.)  It is important for early assignments to stress that the number of reflections is not the goal; rather, capturing the student's thought process is the goal.  As the year goes on, the teacher can modify the goal of capturing the student's though process.

The teacher collects the charts and can do a variety of things with them:

1. comment in the margins which level of Bloom's taxonomy students are reading at; urge students to think more deeply or answer their comprehension questions, if necessary;
2. note for tomorrow's lesson which misunderstandings or questions are common; address them in class discussion or debriefing;
3. give feedback to teachers of record or ELD specialists about student comprehension and reading skills with grade-level materials;
4. create mixed-ability reading groups or differentiate documents read in class by reading level for jigsaw assignments;
5. identify students with extensive background in history or topics being studied in class;
6. diagnose learning problems and strategize ways to fix these problems.