Personal Writing

Personal writing is genre I have experience with as a student and as a teacher. When I was in elementary school I remember using a reading log. For each chapter of a book I read I would summarize what happened, draw a picture of an important event and write a response/reflection about the chapter. As a child I found it difficult to relate to the text and think about how different characters felt. In addition our teacher had us use the same type of journal for the entire school year and it was boring and monotonous As a student I used simulated journal especially in social studies and would take the stance of an important person in history or character in a book during English. During one journal I took on the role of Martha Washington and wrote about what it was like to be the first first lady. Personal writing was a genre I enjoyed in school.

As an educator I used journal writing to get to know my students, their writing and help them gain perspective and deepen their comprehension. When I first started student teaching I had the students follow prompt such as: tell me three things you like to do, what is your favorite subject in school and why and what kind of books to you like to read. The students had an opportunity to share their responses during morning meeting. I think I could have started a dialogue journal with the students and replied and commented on the students' journal entries. I could also allow students to choose their own topics to write about. Tompkins (2012) states that dialogue journals "provide an opportunity for authentic writing and genuine communication" (p. 111). In my future classroom I will use dialogue journals throughout the school year to build a relation and learn more about my students in a more informal setting. 

When teaching the Revolutionary War with my fourth grade students I used a simulated journal (although I did not know this type of journal had a name) and asked students to write in the perspective of a patriot or a loyalist. The students really enjoyed this assignment and added in humor, and details from the information from the text book and the primary sources we reviewed. Using a simulated journal during ELA time or context areas helps students understand the view of a person or character. From taking the role of various characters and historical people students gain an understanding about the feelings and experiences of others and can also relate the experiences to their own life. As a future educator I would use simulated journals and then have students use a double entry journal to relate and respond to the character they wrote about. Using reading logs and double entry journal could aid in comprehension of a text and allow students to think more critically.

To incorporate technology into journal writing students could use a blog or publish to their own wiki page within the class wiki. Students could also comment on their classmate's blog or wiki about what they found interesting or something they have in common.

All the types of journal writing can be used in the classroom. I would not use all the types at the same time but would use each at different times depending on the purpose of activity and content I was teaching. From my past experiences students enjoyed writing in their journals and using a variety of types of journal writing strategies. Using a variety of types of journals would give students opportunities to write for a different purposes, audience and think more critically. Student can also use journals to show how their writing has improve over time, a voice has emerged and increased in length. (Tompkins, 2012).


References:
Tompkins, G. E. (2012). Teaching writing: Balancing process and              product (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.