Theory has always possessed an elusive, intangible, and almost ethereal quality. Comprising nothing but ideas compressed into words, it is supposed to guide literacy interactions and transactions. Theory provides the "why" that underlies the "how to" of teaching. Yet the author, a teacher, has often struggled with the effort of translating theory into practice. She wonders how it is possible to better use theory to guide instruction in a secondary classroom. A passion for reader response theory, commitment to gender theory, and burgeoning interest in poststructural theory, born and nurtured at local and national reading conferences, led her to question more deeply the relationship between theory and the language arts classroom. This article describes how the journal writing process supported these three seemingly complementary theories. Through this journal writing process, males and females not only can make personal meaning from their experiences with texts but also can be engaged in the questioning of how that meaning is made in a shared classroom context. In this sense, students truly explore what it means to be a gendered person in today's society. As for the author's initial preoccupation with the practice of theory, dual-voiced journals have provoked her to think more profoundly about "the why" underlying what it means to be a literacy teacher committed to reader response, impassioned by gender, and intrigued by poststructuralist ideas. (Contains a list of 27 resources.)