Chapter 5 Journal Writing Prepared by M.F. Cullen-Reavill

Group Activity Professor explains activity by picking two people to do one on the board with Everyone picks a card and gets in groups of three Each group is given a large piece of paper and everyone has a different color marker Each group then picks one of the following topics and does a group web without any talking or discussing before hand Topics: Leaves, ice skating, lizards, tomatoes, castles, chess, gourmet cooking, mountain climbing, quilting, summer

Purposes Record personal experiences Explore reactions Interpret books and videos Record and analyze information on other subjects Practice writing to prompts

Audience Limited: Sometimes only writer Sharing is optional and at the discretion of the writer

Forms Personal Journals – Recount real life events or create stories – Topics chosen by author – Teacher can brainstorm list with students Dialogue Journals – Written to be shared – Written like a conversation – Reader responds in the journal

Mini-lesson on Dialogue Journals Early 2 nd Grade Goal 1: Personal Journals – Dialogue format 1. Introduce topic It is the second week of 2 nd grade. The day before I would’ve read a story about how someone kept a journal and then would give kids their own journal and let them decorate it. I would discuss with the students how we have read lots of stories about other kids going to school and now I want to know what it is like for them to start 2 nd grade. 2. Share examples I would write about what I like about second grade meeting my students and their parents. Then I would say now if I asked you to say something back to me what would you say. I would write a couple of responses and then tell them that that is what I will do in their journals.

Mini-lesson on Dialogue Journals (cont.) 3. Provide information I will guide the class in brainstorming a list of possible topics about school including. Then I will choose one and demonstrate how to write it. Emphasizing that journal writing is all about ideas rather than grammar spelling and punctuation. 4. Guide practice The students choose one of the topics on the brainstorming list and write about it. At this time I would not require any certain length. I would give them about 15 minutes and if they finished early I would encourage them to write more or draw a picture. 5. Assess learning I will read all of the student’s journals and would write a response to what they wrote. In the response I would try to point out something that I thought was interesting or I could make a connection with and then ask them a connection to promote further thought and writing.

Forms (Cont.) Reading logs – Students respond to what they read – Evaluate Critique text – Character and plot development Share a sense of involvement with the text Assess or interact with characters – Making meaning of text Express wonder or confusion Making predictions or inferences Monitoring understanding

Forms (Cont.) Learning logs – Keep track of what is being learned in the content areas – Often part of a thematic unit

Mini-lesson learning logs Middle 5 th grade Goal 1:Learning Logs: clustering/webbing 1. Introduce topic The past few weeks we have been studying what it takes to become the president of the U. S. We have done several web quests and have read the article Presidency of the United States. 2. Share examples I would review the group webs that we had done. And then discuss what was good about them and how research might help.

Mini-lesson learning logs (cont.) 3. Provide information I will then discuss the article and what the main topic and subtopics are then I would demonstrate how to start the web and pick out one or two facts for one of the topics. 4. Guide practice The students then would copy the web so far into their journals and then complete it by highlighting and condensing important facts 5. Assess learning I will look at the students webs to make sure that they had as many appropriate facts as were in the article