This book offers an entire year of journaling ideas--some serious, some "silly," but all tied to the calendar year. In fact, the book's sections are the months of the year. Each idea in the book comes with a fact-filled introduction and aims to prove that writing does not have to be boring or dull. As a special feature, many entries in…

Although reading and writing exist only in relation to each other, writing plays little or no role in the usual instructional approaches to reading. Mostly, reading is taught as a sequence of discrete skills, which is ineffective since it accommodates the analytic reading style to the exclusion of global, kinesthetic, and auditory styles. Reading…

Combining the journal writing process with the concepts of collaboration can produce more focused writing and learning. Through the channel of collaborative situations, such as group journal writing, teachers can capitalize on the benefits achieved from the collaborative process and cultivate thinking and writing skills. A group journal writing…

After students' interest in literature has been stirred by journal writing, it is time for them to turn their private journal writing into writing for an audience. Instead of having students write the usual responses to literature, vary their assignments by offering them creative responses, either occasionally or as an individual alternative to…

This digest discusses expressive writing and the expressive mode, which is seen as a recurring stage in a writer's process of writing. The digest suggests that by structuring expressive writing activities and correlating them with particular stages of the writing process, a teacher can draw the natural linguistic activity out of a student. The…

Presents results of a project examining the effects of writing to learn in elementary social studies. Explains that the research explored journal writing activities as a means of improving social studies achievement, writing fluency, and communication. Concludes that journal writing does increase writing fluency and learning retention. (DK)

This lesson introduces Family Message Journals, a tool for encouraging family involvement and supporting writing to reflect and learn. First and second graders are led into composing through demonstration, guided writing, and finally independent writing of messages that they will bring home for family to read and write a reply. During the three…

In outdoor education, reflection transforms experience into knowledge. Writing activities facilitate reflection. In designing writing activities, instructors should ask themselves why they are asking their students to write, what type of writing is appropriate for their purpose, when and in what context the activity should take place, how they…

Based on Herman Melville's novel "Moby-Dick," this lesson plan presents activities designed to help students understand that the novel is grounded in facts that Melville acquired in his own experiences at sea; New England was the center of a prospering whaling industry in the 19th century; and journal keeping was not uncommon among 19th-century…

This two day lesson plan for middle school students examines Marco Polo's travels and trade during the Middle Ages. The unit consists of four activities: (1) journal entry/brainstorming; (2) lecture on trade items of the Middle Ages and Marco Polo; (3) simulation of Marco Polo's Journey; and (4) a writing assignment. It provides step-by-step…

There are many kinds of writing activities for pupils. Pupils need to develop proficiency for a variety of types of writing, such as creative writing and poetry, writing in journals, writing about personal experiences, writing an outline, writing an opinion, writing on how something should be done, writing and problem solving, writing to inform,…

Describes a high school biology assignment that had students read a self-selected book where the main character experiences nature and is changed by it. Evaluation was based on journal entries and a formal paper. Seventy percent of the students indicated they greatly enjoyed the assignment. (PR)

Designed to tap the rich collection of instructional techniques in the ERIC database, this compilation of lesson plans focuses on reading and writing activities for use in the high school science and math classroom. The 43 lesson plans in this book cover writing about science, reading about science, the vocabulary of science, short scientific…

The 26 teaching strategies in this collection originally appeared in IDEAS PLUS, a special publication of the National Council of Teachers of English. The teaching strategies are entitled: (1) "A Dream House" (Thomas M. Cobb); (2) "A Journal-Writing Pot of Gold" (Irina Markova); (3) "Adopt-a-Word" (Annette Matherne); (4) "Contrasting Moods" (Don…

Describes exercises in which students create a fictional character from history and write a journal entry in a cooperative group activity. Discusses further assignments in which individual students create additional characters descended from the original for study of later historical periods. Suggests that the project demonstrates how historical…