Entry #4- Journal Writing

This past week, I have explored the genre of journal writing in more depth and how it can be incorporated into the classroom. Personally, I enjoy engaging with journal writing, as it usually has more voice and personality. It is easy to read and put yourself in the shoes of the character(s), as well as have a better understanding of how much time has passed over the course of the plot since journals are typically dated. Journal writing is also easy to write, as the voice is usually informal and slang can often be used. One aspect of journal writing that stood out to me was the importance of formatting and presentation. The format of journal writing is unique because it should look like a journal or diary entry. I noticed that many primary and middle level mentor texts for journal writing also had engaging pictures that went along with the plot of the story. This also helped make the overall genre more interesting. 

While in class, I engaged with a book called The Owl Diaries: Eva’s Treetop Festival, which was a middle level mentor text. I chose to engage with this particular story because the presentation was appealing and the plot seemed interesting, especially to use as a mentor text. If I were to use this book as a mentor text, I think it would be best suited for 3rd-5th grade. Some of the vocabulary in the text would be difficult for younger grades, especially since some words were made-up and were a play on the fact that all of the characters were owls. One of my group members chose to focus on a primary level mentor text, which I think would be great to use for 1st or 2nd graders. Another one of my group members chose to focus on a Junie B. Jones chapter book, which I think would also be a good fit for 3rd-5th graders to use as a mentor text. As a group, we found many things that the books had in common. All three books were told from one characters’ perspective in first person, had pictures to accompany the plot, and had either dates or days of the week to document each journal entry. Although these books were very different, it was interesting to point out the similarities they had and how you can use those similarities to help teach journal writing.

In the future, I hope to incorporate journal writing into my classroom. I think journal writing can be a great way to get students writing informally without stress. In my first grade classroom, I can envision myself giving each student a journal at the beginning of the year and engaging in dialogue journals. Tompkins (2012) suggests that dialogue journals are a great way to get to know students (especially at the beginning of the year) and to develop writing fluency. I hope that I can incorporate more journal writing into my classroom in the coming years.