Demonstrates how grading students journal can be made easier by making the journals goal-oriented, such as using them as the basis for exams. Suggests that journal assignments can involve more complex learning tasks such as analyzing, interpreting, and applying course materials in specific ways. (PA)

To allow student writing to reach a broader audience, in 1999 political science educators and students at California State University Chico (CSUC) began a student journal in which exemplary student writing on political themes could be published. The resulting journal, "Studium: The California State University, Chico Student Journal of…

Describes how a weekly focused journal writing assessment (in which students note any use of language they find interesting, puzzling, amusing, or annoying as well as their response to it) enhances composition students' awareness of how language is used and where. Offers several different advantages of such journal writing. (SR)

Within the education environment, writing journals are being used across the curriculum and for a variety of purposes--they are often recognized as a means for prompting students to apply the perspective of a particular discipline to their own lives or to facilitate their gaining perspective on personal transitions. Successful use of journals in…

Describes learning log assignments for college students in a developmental studies program. Notes that the assignments call for students to reflect on specific cognitive aspects of learning giving them the opportunity to explore their own thinking, evaluate their own progress, and promote metacognitive awareness. Describes learning log assignments…

After an introduction by James L. Marra explaining the Intellectual Heritage Program at the College of Art and Sciences at Temple University (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), this paper presents four brief faculty essays describing various techniques that the writers use in their classes in the program. The techniques discussed in the paper are…

Effective writing is nearly impossible without engagement with the material. The informal journal may be the only place in the composition class which clearly respects and encourages students' individuality, and which cannot be accused of trying to force them into an academic straitjacket of a sometimes loose, sometimes tight, fit. At the same…

A sabbatical spent exploring the genre of travel writing began a writing instructor's journey to figure out what travel writing teaches--and how--and why it is so compelling to students. Her research in the genre of travel writing began as she was preparing students going abroad to keep meaningful journals. In middle- and advanced-level travel…

Efforts at diversifying and pluralizing curricula in English departments have been under way long enough for many to realize that simply adding a few texts by writers historically omitted will not promote truly broadened learning. A course on "minority literature" (Native-American, Asian-American, African American, and Hispanic) for the…

Three teachers (one university professor, one secondary teacher, and one K-12 language arts coordinator) formed a writing group to generate texts about the phenomenon of student autobiographical writing in the classroom. The paper discusses the benefits of autobiographical writing to students and describes teachers' experiences with student…

A teacher at Western Illinois University, who had resisted using the portfolio system in a writing classroom, developed a shorter portfolio unit to incorporate the best aspects of portfolios without many of the disadvantages. By the beginning of the fifth week of the semester, the students had written three papers, participated in a peer exchange…

Describes the learning log as a personal journal divided into five sections. The "Noting" section functions as a typical notebook. The "Creating" section is for students to express themselves. Students use the "Telling" section to answer examination questions and write other assignments. In the "Listening"…

This paper discusses the content analysis of literacy narratives written in a college composition course in the Fall, 1996. The students developed their histories during the first weeks of class, using a journal format and sharing results with the class. They then wrote a polished and completed reading and writing autobiography. Using purposive…

Authors describe a "writing intensive" physical geology course utilizing both formal and informal writing assignments. The formal assignment consists of a summary paper on four geological articles. A writing tutor provides feedback on drafts of the summaries. The informal writing assignment requires students to keep a journal related to laboratory…

Describes advantages and details of use of journal writing in introductory geology course. Entries include minimum of three one-page entries per week and count for 25 percent of course grade. Most students start with restatement of ideas presented in class; by end of the course, they are drawing original conclusions and applying ideas in new…