1. An introduction to journal writing

2.  Journal writing is an opportunity to explore feelings.  Journal writing has one stipulation…SILENCE!  Journals can help show a writer's growth, both as an individual and as a writer.

3.  Begin with your “book”, loose leaf & pen.  It’s an uninterrupted time to share your thoughts.  Your thoughts are your own. They will not be graded or corrected.  Sometimes your thoughts may be shared

4.  Professional writers keep journals.  A journal is something to fall back on when the going gets rough.  A writer without a journal has no place to store promising ideas, no private place in which to think with a pen.  Feel free to decorate your cover, paste a picture or photo on it, perhaps a quote?  Journals can help show a writer's growth, both as an individual and as a writer.

5.  What interests you?  Write something that means something to you.  You can jot anything and everything down.

6.  What you saw on the bus ride to school  The trees outside this classroom window  The fact that the door to this classroom was moved

7.  Imagination is the stuff that poems, plays and stories are made of.  If you see someone walking down the street with a brief case imagine where that person is going? The job he/she has? What she’s thinking?

8.  Many writers include their dreams in their journals.  Record a dream you had last night or an exciting dream you can’t forget.

9.  Make your journal fun to look at.  Try sketching your friends, the front of your classroom, or an interesting object like an old movie projector  Create a cartoon – about yourself, your family, or your school

10.  Collect these – the interesting ones, the ones that strike you as unusual and different – and paste them in your journal