Teacher Tips for Newbies: Daily Journal Writing

Last week in Language & Literacy we talked about getting prepared for interviews for your new teaching job and what principals and the D.O. (District Office) want to hear. Essentially they want to know if you know the basic foundational elements of language learning. To recap it is important to relay in your interview that students’ development is connected to speaking, listening, reading, and writing. These are the basic foundational elements of language learning that will be discussed:

• Listening and understanding

• Speaking and communicating

• Phonological awareness

• Concepts of print and book awareness

• Early writing

In the last blog I talked about read alouds and their integral role in developing the above items. In this week's blog I will talk about daily JOURNAL WRITING and its value in developing children's educational foundation for learning.

The Development of Language Learning through Daily Journal Writing

Journal writing is an important aspect of everyday classroom learning because it fosters the development of phonological awareness, spelling, communicating, metacognition, intrapersonal skills and reading (Christie, Enz, & Vukelich, 2011; Girard, Girolametto, Weitzman, & Greenberg, 2013; Moore, 2012; Tompkins, 2000). When students have an opportunity to write on a daily basis, the naturally move toward corrected spelling (Tompkins, 2000), and they learn that whatever they can say, they can write, and whatever they can write they can read and share (Christie, Enz, & Vukelich, 2011).

Writing: Daily Journal Writing

Step 1: Connect the writing to the read aloud. Using the story The Gingerbread Man, the teacher can formulate any kind of question that will fulfill the common core standard with the comprehension objective. In this instance, the teacher will write and read the prompt: “The Gingerbread Man ran away because he was afraid of being eaten. Write about a time you were afraid of something. Did you solve your problem?” (For very young students pictures can be drawn).

Step 2: Reflect on your thinking. 1) Show me that your thinking (use a timer and set it for 1 minute). 2) Now share with your A-B partner and remember to repeat and respond (set timer for about 3 minutes). Step 3: Assess. Explain to the class that you will pull a randomizer card to share your ideas or your partner’s idea to the class. Pick about 3 or 4 cards that contain each child’s name on it to share out to the class to ensure that all students are accountable for their learning.

Step 4: Writing. Now that students have reflected, shared with a partner, and heard ideas from random students, each child should have a good idea what they should write about.

Step 5: Review rules for Journal Writing. 1) Write until the bell rings 2) No erasing; circle mistakes. 3) No talking 4) No getting out of your seat. (Set the timer for about 5 minutes)

Step 6: Sharing. Students share their journal writing by reading it to their table group (In my class students are grouped 6 to a table).

In my professional experience, one of the most difficult reading facets for young readers to grasp are effective listening skills which transfers into understanding (Brinda, 2011; Harris & Sipay, 1990; Gambrell, 2011). A current practice for acquiring language is the use of active listening and how students process the listening skills in order to develop comprehension (Aponte-de-Hanna,2012), therefore, it is important to engage in active listening on a daily basis (Moran, Kornhaber, & Gardner, 2006; Moore, 2012; Pritchard, 2009; What Works Clearing House, 2012), which is fostered by daily read alouds and DAILY journal writing.

It will also be very important for you to respond to your students' journals DAILY. As the year progresses this will become more and more difficult to find the time to respond daily. I would assign each group table to a day that I would respond, but even one sentence for each journal is a great way to communicate, get them to read, make personal connections with your students, and model appropriate writing. Other great forms of journal writing include the Hot Seat.

If you would like further information or an example of the Checklist for Assessing Children’s Ability to Make Appropriate Predictions or Engage in Appropriate Journal Writing please email me at DrPattiMartin@gmail.com

Next week I will discuss the development of language through music and singing. Until then, Happy Teaching…….and TEACH ON!