Our Writing Journals

 

I have developed an effective writing journal that our class uses . I use an ordinary manila file folder (the students decorate the front cover) and staple paper to the back cover on the inside of the folder. When that paper is used up I send it home so that parents can see what we've been doing. Then I staple new paper into the folder.

On the inside cover I staple an alphabet chart from the Guided Reading book and a picture dictionary page that I have created. The students lift the alphabet chart to view their individualized dictionary page. On the back cover I staple a list of all our word wall/high frequency words. As I introduce them on the word wall I highlight them on the journal page. The students lift their writing papers to access the page with the high frequency words. Some students prefer to walk to the word wall while others prefer to look at the page in their journals.

I use lined writing paper because some children are always ready for it but the emphasis is never on handwriting in the journals. I do mini lessons on writing left to right, top to bottom and spacing words, as well as other topics such as brainstorming what to write about. More on this to come.

Using the Picture Dictionary

The dictionary page is simply a chart of 16 boxes. The emphasis is that the words in the dictionary are words that are personally important to the student. These are not sight words from the reading curriculum but are words that the students will want to write often. They may be names of people or words that arise from their current interests such as “wrestling”. Each student should only add one or two words to his dictionary at a time.

The teacher can write the word at the bottom of the box and helps the student draws the accompanying picture that helps as a memory aid. Later on the student can copy the word in to the dictionary himself.

Keep seasonal words separate from the dictionary. You may want to make a monthly poster of four-eight seasonal words that you can leave posted for each month. In October you might have pumpkin, costume, witch, and trick or treat on the poster. You do not want to provide them with too many words, just a crutch for those who may need it at the beginning.

An alternative to this system is to call it “My Own Keys” and write the student’s special words on oak tag keys and put them on a cheap keychain.