Journal writing is a learning tool that allows students to reflect on their thoughts, ideas, opinions, and reactions. It helps students clarify and develop their thinking on various topics. There are different types of journals, including personal journals for writing about feelings and interests, dialogue journals for interactive conversations, reading response journals for commenting on books, math journals for explaining problem solving processes, and science/art journals for documenting creative works and experiments. Effective journal writing is informal and allows students to freely link ideas and experiment with different writing styles.

1. What is Journal Writing all about?

2. What is journal writing you ask… It is a learning tool based on the idea that you write to learn.

3. You can use the journals to write about topics of personal interest, to note your observations, to imagine, to wonder and to connect new information with things you already know.

4. They are not diary entries without reflection or a purpose. A diary is a record of actions or what you have done.

5. A journal is a record of reactions. A journal is mostly about your ideas, thoughts, dreams and opinions.

6. What is its purpose? Using journals helps learning When you use journals you have the opportunity to clarify and reflect upon your thinking.

7. You can record such things as ideas and feelings, special words and expressions you have heard, interesting things that have happened to you or information about interesting people

8. There are several types of journals Personal Journals These journals allow the freedom to write about your feelings, opinions, expressions and about topics of personal interest.

9. Dialogue Journals These journals are conversations in writing. Most often the conversation is between the student and the teacher or classmates. These journals are interactive - the two conversation partners comment on one another's entries. These conversations encourage people to express themselves in thoughtful and informal ways.

10. Reading Response Journals These journals are used to capture your reactions to books and to track your reading. The entries might include questions, comparisons, evaluations, letters to characters, predictions and comments on style or mood.

11. Math Journals The goal of writing in mathematics is to provide you with opportunities to explain your thinking about mathematical ideas and then to re-examine your thoughts by reviewing your writing. Writing will help your understanding of math as you learn to ‘talk’ about your thought processes in solving problems and learning math concepts.

12. Science Journals These journals could be a great way to gain a better understanding on how you are thinking about the science lesson. You can write questions about process or outcomes of explorations. They can use drawings, diagrams, data charts and graphs.

13. Art Journals The art journal gives you a place to plan, to gather resources and research materials, to do preliminary drawings and to experiment with media; in short, to explore and document your personal creative processes.

14. Our Learning Journals We are learning to use journals that show our new understandings, knowledge and ideas.

15. How should I write? Write informally. Informal writing is rather like speaking. Don't worry too much about 'correct' punctuation, or grammar, or spelling. BUT this is not an excuse to be careless.

16. You can use underlining, or bold, or italics to add meaning, and you may link lots of ideas together with dashes instead of full stops and commas.

17. The journal also allows you to experiment as a writer. Sometimes a poem or a dialogue where you argue or debate with yourself is the only way to express an idea.

18. Draw a detailed picture one day. Take a risk!

19. Prompts Think of the subjects Look at the timetable on the board Mind gym What was the first thing we did today? What do I now know about journal writing? What strategies do I now know to try for problem solving? The 100 game - how to win.