2010 ACEIConference Presentation

Navigating the Journaling Maze

Ann Stillwagon

Dictionary DefinitionJournal: A diary or record of daily occurrencesLog: a ships log or logbookNotebook: A book with blank pages on which notes may be enteredDiary: a record of daily events, a personal record of one’s activities, experiences, or observations

Journal/Notebook/Log are all terms for writing in some type of a bound paper

form of media. Benefits Include:• To keep a sequential record of growth of

literacy during a time period• Organization- no loose or lost entries• Multiple journals can be used • Each for a specific purpose

WHY WRITE?•To enhance literacy skills•To reflect on ideas before during and after experiences•To value and exchange ideas•To record thoughts, feelings, questions•To create and encourage writers•Encourage critical thinking•Collaborate and problem solve•Dale’s Cone of Experience says we remember 70% of what we write

http:/teacherworld.com/potdale.html

Information Literacy Skills Objectives AASL Standards

for 21st Century Learner

1. 1.Inquire, think critically, and gain knowledge2. 2.Draw conclusions, make informed decisions,

apply knowledge to new situations, and create new knowledge

3. 3.Share knowledge and participate ethically and productively as a member of our democratic society

4. 4.Pursue personal and aesthetic growth

5. Trinkle, C. (2008)

Standard 1:Inquire think critically, and gain

knowledgeSkills:1.1.2: Use prior and background

knowledge as content for new learning.

1.1.4: Find, evaluate and select appropriate sources to answer questions

Trinkle, C. (2008)

Standard 2:Draw conclusions, make informed decisions,

apply knowledge to new situations, and create new knowledge.

Skills:2.1.1:Continue an inquiry based research process by

applying critical thinking skills to information and knowledge in order to construct new understanding, draw conclusions, and create new knowledge.

2.1.6:Use writing process, media and visual literacy, and technology skills to create products that express new understanding.Trinkle, C. (2008)

Standard 3:Share knowledge and participate

ethically and productively as a member of our democratic society

Skills:3.1.3: Use writing and speaking skills to

communicate new understandings effectively

Trinkle, C. (2008)

Standard 4:Pursue personal and aesthetic

growthSkills:4.1.3: Respond to literature and creative

expressions of ideas in various formats and genres.

4.1.8: Use creative and artistic formats to express personal learning.

Trinkle, C. (2008)

The Best Practice benefits of Journaling is evidenced by the six modes of

Language Arts ReadingListeningWritingSpeakingViewingVisually Representing

Thinking: The seventh mode?• Metacognition: thinking about thinking. • Teaching students to think, think about their thinking

and providing opportunities to demonstrate their thinking

• What we think, Why we think, Do we think like others, What do they think, How does our thinking affect our learning? What was the author thinking when they wrote . . .

• If thinking is the seventh mode, then the questions that we ask our students are essential for their learning.

• The quality and level of question ask equates the quality and depth of the answer given.

• Thinking is evidenced by writing

Bloom’s Taxonomy (1956) is still relevant.• Knowledge: Recalling or recognizing information

as it was learned• Comprehension: Understanding the material

communicated without relating it to anything else• Application: Using this information to solve a

problem with a single correct answer• Analysis: Breaking information down into it’s

component parts• Synthesis: Creating something new from parts not

previously related• Evaluation: Making judgments, putting opinions in

order, and applying standards

(Bloom 1956)exFay,J. and Funk,D.(1995)

Different journals for different purposes•Readers Journal/Notebook/Log•Conversation/response/reciprocal/ dialogue/Journal/Notebook/Log•Writer’s Notebook/Idea Catalogs•Brief Points/Exit Slips•Home/School response Journal

Daily Journal/Notebook/Log• Four steps in constructing and using daily journals- Experiencing- Group journaling- Reading- Independent journal writing/reading/sharing Strickland, D. and Morrow, L.(1990)

• Predict reading• Summarize reading• Reflect on reading• Write readings inspired questions• Write to prompts• Write pre-queals and sequels

Conversation/response/reciprocal/ dialogue/Journal/Notebook/Log

• Student writes teacher responds-student writes/responds-teacher responds

• This child centered method promotes-Self efficacy-emerging literate identity-making student voices visible-knowing “at risk “students-collaborative opportunities-exploration of daily experience-personal insights -connections between home and school Sesta, J. (2008)

Writer’s Notebook/Idea Catalogs

• Writers Notebook:- A place to record reactions and feelings-What you see, smell, taste, touch or experience-What makes you happy, sad, angry or amazed-What you notice, ponder-What you don’t want to forget

Fletcher, R. (1996).

• Idea Catalog:- Ideas to spark or inspire writing. -Gathered from life experience.-Place to record possible writing topics

Trierweiler, H.(2009).

Brief Points/Exit Slips • Brief Point: As students leave the classroom ask

them to write down an important piece of learning, insight, understanding, question, something they wonder about or don’t understand on a piece of paper that can later be glued into a notebook. Tankersley, K. (2003)

• Exit slip is a quick fill in the blank response form that could address:– The research skill I was taught today. . .– A research skill I knew and used was. . .– Help! A question I have about my project, research,

assignment or today’s event was. . – A teacher choice of outcome/process Preddy, L.(2008)

Both can be used as authentic and ongoing assessment as well

Using Journals can Connect Ideas to Improve Learning Outcomes

•Before, During and After Reading•In Differentiated Learning Groups•To Scaffold learning•Is Cross-curricular enhancement•As Automatic Study Guide•To Support ESL Students•To Assist in Connecting Home and School•To Evidence comprehension•As Multi-leveled instruction

Research Based Writing Features that act as Motivating Factors of

Children’s Writing•Authentic context for writing•Collaborative opportunities•Choice of content, genre, and audience•Reference to “ more knowledgeable others”•Access to models for writing•Freedom to use cultural connections•Access to support for skills development•Access to a range and choice of resources for writing Lambirth, A.and Goouch, K.(2006).

Journals can be used to enhance language

experience at every level• Preschool• Primary• Intermediate• Secondary

Emergent Journaling Ideas withFamily Interaction

•Teacher scribes a child’s dictation to child’s drawing. Child then retells their story •Daily the classroom mascot “PAL”(stuffed animal) goes home with a different child daily with a journal and parents write what Pal and child did. These entries are shared the next day with the class. •Artist of the day: Artists Journal goes home with child. Child draws a picture representing the story which is returned and shared.•Weekly classroom library book and journal sent home. Journal documents child’s emergent response prewriting or drawing date/book listed checklist can be pasted in for parent’s easy response of times read and comments•Home /School daily response Journals keeps constant communication and a partnership between parent and teacher

PrimarySustained opportunities to write:

•Support understanding of challenging material•Construct meaning from experience•Examine narrative elements of reading•Include retelling, reflecting, self monitoring, exploring feelings, thoughts and assessing characters, validating predictions, expressing wonder or confusion, • Offering literary critic Martinez M. and Roser, N.(2008)

•Are Fun

IntermediateSustained writing opportunities provide:

•Multiple Literacy Experience•Interdisciplinary instruction•Construct Meaning•Themes and questions•Identity formation•Creative expression•Research•Document and analyze•Instant Study Guides-graphic organizers can be pasted into journals•Fun

McMillen, S. and Wilhelm, J.(2007).

SecondarySustained opportunities to write:

•Enhances critical thinking skills•Encourages creatively and reflection•Helps students develop their own voice•Allows students to persuade, to debate, to share an opinion or point of view•Permits a venue to reorganize information (Many students lack note taking skills)• Helps to clarify, analyze, synthesize and evaluate experiences, research or ideas•Broadens horizons•Are fun

Summer Scribbles: Activities to help students maintain their writing skills during summer vacation•“What I am doing” Blog•Traveling Travelogue•Non-Fiction Notebooks•Creative Expansion of past projects•Think about what kind of writer they are or want to become•Idea Catalog: scrapbooks, lists•Three things I did this week Trierweiler, H.(2009).

Effective Teachers of Writing are:•Learner focused •Artfully and playfully involved in the extended process of composition•Able to develop creative contexts and affectively involving spaces for writing•Open, flexible, passionate and intuitive•Conscious risk takers•Writers themselves•Aware of the importance of meaning, purpose and agency in writing•Knowledgeable, but with questioning stance•Independent individuals who demonstrate a degree of autonomy and value this in others Lambirth, A.and Goouch, K.(2006)

Family Literacy:•Families help children construct meaning about-Life-Culture-Thought-Values-Learning-Language-Literacy•Parents need viewed/ supported as child’s first teacher•Parents need to feel empowered to become active participants•School and family working together-promote partnership•Literacy Development takes place inside and outside school•Teachers can tap into families literacy/cultural knowledge-food-pictures-family publications-journals-parents as resources Zygouris-Coe, V.(2007)

•

•Teachers can tap into families literacy/cultural knowledge-food-pictures-family publications-journals-parents as resources•Develop specific plans for family and community involvement•Develop relationships, create opportunities to interact•Acknowledge multiple literacies and the richness and diversity of knowledge•Embrace family literacy and view it as a mediator for children’s literacy development, instead of an obstacle Zygouris-Coe, V.(2007)

Bibliography

Clip Art from Microsoft Office Online.comButler, M and Nesbit, C. (2008)Using Science Notebooks to improve Writing Skills and

Conceptual Understanding. Heldref Publications Science Activities: Classroom projects. 44:4

Fletcher, R. (1996). A Writers Notebook. New York, NY : Harper Collins Publications Lambirth, A. and Goouch, K.(2006). Golden times of writing: the creative compliance

of writing journals. Literacy. 40:3Martinez M. and Roser, N.(2008) . Writing to Understand Lengthy Text: How First

Graders Use Response Journals to Support Their Understanding of Challenging Chapter Book. Literacy Research and Instruction. 47: 195-210.

McMillen, S. and Wilhelm, J.(2007). Student’s stories: Adolescents constructing multiple literacies through nature journaling. Journal of Adolescent &Adult Literacy. 50:5

Preddy, L.(2008) Research Reflections, Journaling, and Exit Slips. School Library Media Activities Monthly. 25:2 p.22-23

Bibliography continuedSesta, J. (2008) Enhancing reflection and wondering through reciprocal

journaling. Practically Primary, p32(5)Retrieved from Academic OneFileStrickland, D. and Morrow, L.(1990)The daily journal: Using language

experience strategies in an emergent literacy curriculum .The Reading Teacher. Feb.1990 p.422-23

Tankersley, K. (2003) Threads of Reading:Strategies for Literacy Development. Association for Supervision &Curriculum Development. P110-114, 142 Retrieved from http://site.elibrary.com/lib/sru/Doc?id=10048760Trierweiler, H.(2009). Summer Scribbles. Instructor, p.58Trinkle, C. (2008). Journaling with John Muir. School LibraryMedia Activities

Monthly. 25:2 p.15-16Zygouris-Coe, V.(2007). Family Literacy: The Missing Link to School –Wide

Literacy Efforts. Reading Horizons. V48.1 p.57-70