I would like to start my 9 yr olds, after school program write journals.
I would be interested to hear from any teachers that try this and discover how useful it has been for the students.
How are they assessed?
Is there more focus on language or content
thkx
Quite a bit has been written about this. Try this one for some basics.
Perspectives on Journal Writing for the ESL/EFL Classroom
If you want to explore any of the reference articles, I can probably e-mail them to you - I have an online subscription to many journals.
I tried freewriting techniques for students, though if you brainstorm and list ideas first, you should be able to get them to write something.
Remember: they will need to have something to write about first, they are not so reflective as adults.
iteslj.org/Techniques/Dickson-Freewriting.html
Kenneth
You asked how to assess their journals. The research I’ve seen says the best thing is to not assess journal-writing at all. The point of journal-writing is to develop fluency and self-confidence. The teacher reading and responding naturally to the content is the best course of action. For example, if a student writes a story about her dog, you could write a few comments about the story, or ask her a few questions (real questions, that you ask because you are interested). Journals are not the place for error correction. They are the place for the writers to freely express themselves without fear of being graded or rejected.
This is the same principle guiding spoken exercises. In practice activities that are designed to increase students’ fluency, the teacher is not supposed to correct every mistake. The teacher is supposed to encourage the students to talk a lot.
I have been teaching the 4th grade for two years now and I do journals with them at least once a week as a warm-up to the lesson. I never EVER grade or correct my students’ journals. I do topics based on what we are learning in our stories. My school program is literature and theme based so the kids have stories based on a theme such as creative thinking, friendship, fairy tales, or community ties. I have asked them how would they be friends with someone who did not speak their languages. I also do journal topics based on issues I see in the classroom such as when students have personal conflicts, I ask give them a similar situation and ask them to write how they would resolve it. I also have them evaluate a theme and the work we do in it so I can get an idea of what works and what doesn’t. When my boys were drawing tanks and violent pictures on their work, I had them write their opinion on violence on TV and video games. That was an enlightening one because all of the children said that they thought TV and video games were too violent for children. I asked them if I could show their parents their writing on TV violence. At parent visitation night, I showed them along with the violent drawings and an article on TV violence’s influence on children to make them a little more aware of its effects on them. I helped another girl who was new to the school think of ways to make friends with the girls who had been at the school since preschool. This year I helped one who had been at the school since the age of two work out a feeling of being left out by the other girls by encouraging her to talk to them about how she felt. It’s very wonderful to see how the written dialogues I have can help them.
There are lots of websites out there for journal starters. One that I have used a lot of prompts from can be found here
I had kids who started off this year constantly asking me questions like “How do I spell this?” ("I just want to know what you think.), “How long does it have to be?” and would write a few short, simple (and stiff) sentences. By the end of the year, I have some asking for a new notebook because their own are almost completely full (60-page notebooks too!) although we haven’t been writing in them all the time. Even my weaker students are writing more fluently now. I just regret that this year I have been very busy in other areas that I have not responded to their writing as often as I did at the beginning of the year.
Remind them that their journals are only for getting their ideas and thoughts out and are by no means being evaluated for spelling, grammar, or mechanics. What a great way to boost writing skills and get to know your students better!
I would suggest that you copy the pages and re-edit them. Then you can use the copies and their work anonymously for grammar and correction in another session/time. It works well.
I NEVER correct journal work UNLESS they ask a specific question or I haven’t a clue what they are writing about (Rare, actually).
Kenneth
you’ve all been most helpful thx.