Writing
Bands A,B,C,D

What are they?

Journals come in many forms and teachers should choose their own way of using them in the classroom. In journals, students undertake an important form of writing in the English classroom - writing to learn. When they write to learn, students attempt to make personal sense of their experience as well as build connections between what they know and new ideas they encounter. This type of writing helps students to construct their own knowledge, develop their thinking and reflect on their learning. It is part of the process by which understanding can be communicated to others in a range of written and oral genres.

Journals range from informal personal journals in which students express their private thoughts to structured learning logs in which students record thoughts, questions and comments about their learning and make plans for future work.

What is their purpose?

This depends on the type of journal the student is using. However, teachers find that using journals are useful in that they

• encourage students to think and articulate their thoughts
• make their learning personal
• support self-exploration and self-discovery
• focus student attention on values, attitudes and ethical issues
• support the key learning processes of negotiation, collaboration and reflection
• improve writing

Journals are useful in assessing student progress against the TLOS for writing and addressing particular writing criteria in TASSAB syllabuses.

If journals are to work in your classroom, you must be clear about your educational purposes for using them. Be sure to share these intentions with your students. All writers need to see a value and purpose for writing. Broadly speaking, there are five types of journal used in English. Often, teachers incorporate features of these different types into one journal that suits their needs and those of their students.

1. Personal journals: Students write regularly on whatever they wish, sometimes in response to a prompt or topic suggested by the teacher. Students record events in their lives, explore ideas, questions, fears, concerns and other thoughts, often not related to school. Entries can include sketches, diagrams, doodles, cartoons, etc. These journals are usually shared only with the teacher and close friends. If you are using journals for the first time, the personal journal is probably the easiest to begin with. However, because they tend to be unstructured and open-ended, personal journals do not appeal to all students.

2. Dialogue journals (Written conversations): These can be similar to personal journal; however, in dialogue journals, the teacher writes a response to what students have written. Over a period of time, the student and teacher carry on a written conversation, most often related to school work, but sometimes related to personal thoughts and feelings. The dialogue journal is a good place for compliments on student behaviour and performance. The dialogue journal is an excellent way of scaffolding students' learning. You can model correct usage, correct spelling and different ways of responding; you can use your responses to develop students' thinking. Dialogue journals help develop reading skills because students are usually motivated to communicate with you.

Dialogue journals are an excellent way for you to come to know your students in different ways, especially those quiet and reserved students who are often not prepared to ask questions and participate in discussion in class. It is very important in dialogue journals that you respond directly to what students say and avoid generalised statements such as "well done" or "very interesting to read". Sometimes, a question at the end of your response will help students to make a new entry, but avoid asking too many questions. It is more important for students to ask questions. Where possible, avoid writing more than your students do and try to make your response interesting to read.

A problem with dialogue journals is that they can take up an enormous amount of time. Even writing a few words in response to a student is time consuming, especially in secondary schools where the teacher may have a number of English classes. Therefore, it is important to have strategies to cope with the demands of dialogue journals. Some of these are:

• collect a small number of journals each day in which to respond;
• write responses during journal writing time;
• ask students to star entries to which they would particularly like you to respond
• incorporate a dialogue journal into a learning log and respond at important times two or three times per term (for example near the beginning or towards the end of a unit of work);
• make the dialogue journal optional;
• use dialogue journals with small groups of students over a limited period of time (6 weeks for example) ensuring that every student keeps one at some stage during the year.

3. Learning Logs: These are a form of journal that focuses on work that students are doing in the classroom and generally does not include comments about personal matters. Learning logs work best if teachers respond regularly to what students write, but they require fewer responses than dialogue journals. You should negotiate agreed protocols and structures for the dialogue journal. Insist that students bring the learning log to every lesson and let them know that you will be using their logs as an important method of assessment. Learning logs can be used at various times during lesson or unit of work. For example, you could show the opening credits of a film and ask students make predictions in their learning logs about the events that will occur. At different times during the screening of the film, you could stop and ask students to reflect on what they have viewed and predict future action. At the end, you could ask them to evaluate the film. At various stages during a unit, you could ask students to discuss key questions, reflect on their learning and negotiate new goals. From time to time, you can ask students to swap their learning logs and comment on each others' reflections. The notes students make in their logs can form the basis of an essay they write. Learning logs are an excellent support for class and group discussion. By asking students to reflect on a key question in writing before engaging in discussion, you give all students the opportunity to think carefully before making a response. In this way, more students become involved in the discussion and the discussion tends to be richer.

Encourage students to use their learning logs to explore questions other than those you have set. Again, if they know that you will be using the learning log as an assessment tool, they will often be more likely to take it seriously. Encourage students, especially struggling writers, to use mind maps, sketches and diagrams as well as narrative. High school teachers often find it is possible to collect and respond to learning logs two or three times per term. When they do this, the learning log becomes an adapted form of the dialogue journal.

Some teachers prefer to use a double page learning log. Students use the left hand page of the journal to make notes and record their observations, analysis, predictions and reflections, often on texts they are studying. They use the right hand side of the page to reflect upon and evaluate their learning and to ask questions. Teachers usually make their comments on the right hand page.

Teachers who use learning logs find they provide excellent insight into their students' thinking and learning. As with other types of journals, you need to prepare students by modelling a range of entries. Often, you can use entries made by students from the previous year. It is good idea to keep a learning log yourself and demonstrate how you make your entries.

4. Reading Logs Students use reading logs to record what they have read, respond personally to and analyse texts. As such, reading logs are a useful way for teachers' to monitor student reading.

As with all journals, the reading log requires clear guidelines and regular opportunities to make entries during class time. In its simplest form, the reading log is used for students to keep track of what they have read. In addition, students can write responses to literature, mass media and everyday texts as they read, often making entries after a certain number of pages or events. It is a good idea to present students with a range of ideas to use for making entries in their reading logs:

• write character reports in which they report on what they know about different characters at different stages of their reading
• adopt a character where they work in groups focusing on particular characters and build up an in depth profile including extracts from the text
• create a diary in which they make an imaginary diary by one of the characters at various key stages of the novel
• construct a plot profile, often in graphic form, in which they record the key events of a novel. Students can do this in pairs and share their profile with others in the class. In addition, students can develop excitement charts in which where important events are given an excitement rating. Plot profiles can be combined with excitement charts and plotted on a chart. The events form the horizontal line; the excitement rating forms the vertical scale
• make reflective comments where they refer back to the text to identify developments and changes in action and characterisation
• construct flow charts and relationship charts (literary sociograms) in which students note key moments and relationships among characters at important points in the novel
• write a poem using favourite descriptive words or phrases from a novel
• redesign the cover of a novel with a particular audience in mind
• list the ten most important things about the novel they are reading
• draft a letter to the author or one of the main characters
• complete a number of statements, for example: what I most wanted to happen was; what I really liked was; what surprised me was; what I most admired about the main character was, etc.
• create a story board for a dramatic scene in the text
• draft an advertisement aimed at a particular audience for the book you are reading

While many students enjoy keeping a record of their reading, others say it takes away from their enjoyment of reading. As with all types of journals, you need to adapt what you do to meet the requirements of individual students. Having students work in pairs or small groups at different times often helps those who have difficulty making entries in their reading journal.

5. Writer's Notebook Most authors keep a writers' notebook of some kind in which they jot down their observations thoughts and feelings, stick in interesting bits from newspapers and magazines, write down snippets of conversation they have heard, all of which provide a stimulus for writing. Students can do the same thing. Ask visiting authors to bring along their writers' notebook to share with students.

Many authors use their writer's notebook to engage in free writing. Free writing enables them to engage in the act of writing and lets thoughts and feelings flow. Although they may not immediately use the free writing, they can go back to it for inspiration at another time.

Suggest that students keep their notebook handy and record the date of each entry. In time, students will build up a treasury of ideas and experiences to use later. Like professional writers, they can pick things out, change them around, adapt them and polish them for publishing. As with all journals, writer's notebooks work best when you model their use with students.