One of my fellow teachers told me that she went to a conference where she learned about kids writing in a response journal every day. She replies to them every day. She said she did this last year and loves it. She said it really motivates the kids. She teaches 1st but said the person at the conference says to use it all the way up through highschool. Does anyone know who this is or where I can find more information about it? Thanks!
Try reading Aimee Buckner's Notebook Know-How. It is a paperback that runs about 15 dollars. You can get it at Amazon.com. I found it to be a great tool to enhance my student's writing folder work. She has many great ideas, and it works!
Sounds like a great idea--the more you can get your students writing the better. However, I know that when I had 28+ students in a homeroom class, there's no way I could read all of their journals every day, much less respond in them.
I only ask volunteers to read their work. Sometimes, I'll walk around and peek over their shoulders to make sure they are being successful. If I see something that I feel I need to address, I'll jot them a sticky note and poke it there as they are writing. Yes, I never take all the journals to my desk in a big pile and go through them. Heavens, I team teach and that would be over 45 journals! Besides, the idea is to make connections with the students and their writing. Work smarter, not harder is my motto.
My students respond to their reading in their reading journals after they independently read. (They do this while I meet with my guided reading groups.) I conference with them on Thursday and Friday to check their response journals. This helps me check their comprehension and strategy use while they read.
I've seen them called Dialogue Journals. I do it even with my Kinders, they love it, having their own conversation with the teacher and it validates their thoughts and interests. I just went to a training that said it was really good for ESL kids as well.
I do journal with the students in computer class. They type their journal entry and save a running document in their folder on the network. I can go in and check on them at any time. I do it more for the keyboarding practice to be honest. Here is another idea for you. There is a really fun short book called Please Write in this Book by Mary Amato that I came across recently. The premise is that the teacher put a blank notebook in the Writer's Corner for the students to find on their own. There were some rules for the students to follow, but the journal was there for them to write in and converse with their classmates through writing in the journal. This might be a fun thing to try in a classroom or even just to read the book to your students.
My students write to me in their journals 3 times a week, but know that I only read and respond once a week. Their journals are a great way for us to communicate and get to know each other better throughout the entire day. I don't use "journal time" to have them do any curriculum based responses (we do that type of response at other times). I do give prompts, but students are allowed to write to me about anything. They usually write about what's going on in their lives. I absolutely love reading their journals and they love writing in them.
