Journaling presents many opportunities in the language classroom

Photo by Angelina Litvin on Unsplash

Prior to spending this year as a student teacher in Ms. Blitz’ ESL classroom, I occasionally assigned journal assignments to my 8th graders. I often viewed journaling as a way to hear from my students, about their lived experiences and personal views on topics related to what we were studying in class or topics of their choosing. I mainly regarded the classroom journal process as an added means for me to understand and learn from each of my students, as well as a way for them to reflect on themes we studied in class. Although these motives were valid grounds to implement journal assignments in the language arts classroom, I was missing the mark. My mentor teacher’s expert implementation of journal writing, along with my research, has made me realize that I was missing out on some key facets of quality journaling instruction!

According to J. Williams (2012), although many educators have traditionally envisioned writing instruction from a “learning to write” stance, recent research suggests that it can and should be intended as a process for “writing to learn”. If seen from this perspective, writing can be intentionally utilized as a powerful learning tool to advance language development.

As I plan what my learning space will be like in future years, I have re-conceptualized what journaling will look like in my classroom. Below are some thoughts on implementing a quality journaling component, in the language classroom:

1. When assigned on a consistent basis, journaling provides a sound means to collect and maintain current data on student progress. Effective teachers will look to student writing for trends when selecting new focus areas (in grammar, vocabulary, or writing structure).

2. At the very least, journaling warrants regular, targeted, individual feedback from the teacher – both affirming and corrective. For instance, after instructing students in use of past tense verb forms, the teacher might push students to use past these, then mark any correct or incorrect uses of the past tense when they next read student journals.

3. In addition to providing instructive feedback, teachers may also choose to converse with each of their learners, through written responses. This takes time but can be a great way to connect with each student. In a 50-minute period, a teacher seldom has the capacity to authentically check in with each learner, listen and respond.

4. Because of its slower pace, journaling offers students more time to notice their own learning gaps, and search for vocabulary that they may lack in their target language, practice new grammar lessons, and self-correct. For elaboration on this aspect of journaling, see Williams (2012).

5. When journal prompts are connected to classroom themes, they allow students to engage with and relate to topics from a personal standpoint. In this way, it can give voice to learners who may not yet have the academic vocabulary to speak often in class, or who may just not feel as comfortable participating in public. It can also provide more data on how well students comprehend such topics, and whether clarification is needed.

6. If routinized, journaling can be a time-saver! When students are accustomed to beginning class with a 15 to 20 minute individual journal exercise, this gives the teacher

Disclaimer: in order for all of the above elements to work in concert, journaling should really be made a habitual part of your classroom routine. When students are expected to journal regularly, they become more comfortable with the writing process and accepting of teacher feedback. They also gain the benefits of regular, extended language production. Moreover, as their year unfolds, their journal becomes a time capsule. It allows students to witness how their writing has improved over time.

Tags: Journaling, writing, language acquisition, second language acquisition, language learning, language development, teaching, language arts

Article Referenced:

Williams, J. (2012). The potential role(s) of writing in second language development. Journal of Second Language Writing 21(4), 321-331.

Natalya Betzig is a graduate student teacher from Boston University’s School of Education.