Entry 3: Journal Writing

                                          

The quote that stood out to me the most while reading (Tompkins 2019) chapter on Journal Writing was "Writing to learn integrates writing into all content areas" (Tompkins p. 119). I believe that this quote is significant to teaching because writing does not only occur during literacy or reading, but writing is incorporated in math, science and social studies as well. The main topic that I will focus on for this blog will be Journal Writing.

Many teachers decide to teach students on how to write personal journals in many different ways. I believe teaching journal writing is effective for all grade levels. However, there are many journal writing types including personal journals, learning blogs, double entry journals, reading logs and many more. Students use journal writing as a way to keep track of what they have learned throughout the day, or week. Sometimes, students will write about events that are happening in their lives. Other students may consider writing about a person that they are interested in, about a place they visited, or something they learned that grabbed their full attention.

 Reflecting back on my personal elementary experiences, I remember in third grade my teacher encouraged me to keep a personal journal or diary to write down any interesting or inspiring things we learned throughout the different lessons she taught us. Even for math and science, I remember using our journals everyday during instruction to write down any thoughts or ideas we were curious about. Also, we had the opportunity to share our ideas or thoughts with our peers, which helped us to know which lessons in the content areas they favored more than others. However, some students might prefer to keep their journal writing to themselves, because sometimes they write about personal events that have happened to them that is not worth sharing to others, especially if it makes them depressed. I believe personal journals are effective for students to utilize in the classroom.

Last semester, I took a literacy class named content areas, which I absolutely enjoyed every minute of. Our teacher gave us the opportunity to look at and read different kinds of texts including trade books. During class, we created questions to write in our journals as a writing prompt to see if we retained any information we learned for that one lesson. In this class, we experienced many reading and writing strategies that we can implement in our future classroom including GIST, Pyramid, Teacup, QAR, Quick-Write, and many others. I believe that the recurring process of writing to learn is essential. The writing process will assist students to understand on how to write correctly, including the multiple traits of writing which is organization, presentation, word choice, audience, and some others that Hicks refers to (Hicks 2013). However, Tompkin states, "when students write about what they have learned", they become more engaged with their writing piece (Tompkins, p. 119).

One journal writing type that I would consider teaching students in my classroom would be Double Entry Journals. I believe that this type of journaling is interactive for students because they are able to predict what is going to occur in the text they are reading. Then, after they read, they have the chance to reflect back and determine if their first assumption was correct. Double Entry Journals support students reading comprehension and vocabulary skills. Therefore, I think Double Entry Journals are effective for students to use in the classroom daily.

Another journal writing form I would incorporate in my future classroom includes Dialogue journals. This gives students an opportunity to write to me everyday with any questions or concerns that they would have relating to the topics that are being taught. Also, I noticed that these dialogue journals can be used as an exit ticket or an end of the day discussion. Therefore, I believe Dialogue journals are an effective resource for students to use in the classroom.

The last form of journal writing that I would use in my future classroom would be Reading logs. I believe reading logs supports students understanding of what they have learned while reading different texts. It also helps them realize which genres they have experienced. It is important for students to write down what they have learned, therefore they can activate their background knowledge. Furthermore, reading logs assists students to know which books they have attempted before and which ones are unfamiliar to them. Students have to understand that there is always a purpose for reading a text. Furthermore, reading logs allows students to dig deeper in their learning while focusing on the story grammar itself (main characters, setting, problem, solution, and goal attempted). Therefore, I believe reading logs are effective for students to use in the classroom.

All journal writing forms are effective for students to utilize in the classroom as a helpful resource guide. I believe students need to be taught different forms of writing throughout learning content in all subject areas including reading, math, social studies, and science. When students use journals in a classroom, it helps them explore and develop ideas while gaining knowledge from reading different texts or writing personal stories. For my classroom, I would want to meet all students needs in the classroom including visual learners, kinethstic learners as well as auditory learners. For my gifted students, I want to challenge them and have them work on an assignment that allows them think deeper with the text we are studying. From writing this blog and reading Tompkins chapter on journal writing, I believe that journaling is a great genre for students to experience and be exposed to in the classroom in order to interact with their classmates and teachers.

References

Hicks, T. (2013).  Crafting digital writing.  Portsmouth, NH:  Heinemann.

Tompkins, G. E.  (2019). Teaching writing:  Balancing process and product (7th ed.).  Upper Saddle River, NJ:  Merrill.