Shares how the author's process of self-study led to the development of a planning framework that protected her from mandated packaged teaching programs. Suggests tips for starting and sustaining teaching journals. Describes the steps she took to approach the structured teaching plan of her new school that differed greatly from her holistic…

Describes a student's journal entry which discusses her response to a work of digital fiction. Reads the journal entry as a resistance narrative, an assemblage, a remediation, and an emergence. Reflects upon the changes in instruction and identity that occur in computer classrooms, online course supplements, and Internet classes. (PM)

Shares the observations of an educator visiting a high school classroom. Comments on how planning can support students' initial responses and their deeper thinking. Argues that teachers of literature can be both intuitively planful and planfully spontaneous in providing students with powerful language tools for shaping personal meaning. (MG)

Explores the use of journals as teaching tools. Finds modifications are necessary to accommodate the differences between the psychology professor's goals and the composition teacher's goals. Recommends using dialectical reasoning entries and lists some practical methods to encourage students to think critically. (NL)

Argues that writing centers can unintentionally emphasize writing-for-evaluation at the expense of writing-for-learning. Proposes that writing centers help students write productive journal entries; coach students in freewriting; appeal directly to students in writing-for-learning courses; and sponsor ongoing faculty education in…

Explores how high school students' reading logs reveal their reading processes as they read and respond to literature. Examines the reading logs from three eleventh-grade English classes throughout the school year. (MM)

Describes a study conducted to examine the effects of journal writing on student performance in a math course offered as part of an eight-week summer program for educationally and economically disadvantaged youth. Indicates that students who completed practice exercises at the end of class performed better than those who wrote in their journals…

A primary school in Cali, Colombia, has implemented major changes intended to give students a more active role in their education. Encouraged by new government guidelines, teachers banished letter grades and began to assess students on mastery of curriculum objectives. During parent-teacher conferences, children speak confidently about their…

Describes how one English teacher revised course goals and journal writing assignments to promote better thinking and writing in a college literature course. Concentrates on the way "Beowulf" was taught and the kinds of writing about it that were produced by students as a result. (HB)

Teachers can use dialog journals to inspire their students to write. Such a method allows students to write and teachers to answer without worrying about red marks or negative comments. The article suggests topics to get students writing and ideas for encouraging students to write. (SM)

A behavior specialist working in a class for students identified as severely emotionally disturbed shares the dialog journal writing of an eighth-grade male student and notes the boy's self-evaluation regarding his special education label, his searching questions, his relationship to others, his growing self-esteem as a writer, and his family…

Explores how journal writing in a free form--without consideration of grammar, punctuation, or other mechanics and without the guidance of an assigned topic--may lead to trusting relationships with teachers and students' increased understanding of their own needs and motives. Suggests that behavior of troubled students improves as a result of this…

Describes a first grade teacher's efforts to expand the boundaries of her literate classroom community and include the families of her students. Describes how all students' families participated, each in their own way, in reading and journaling together, and in the "Family Stories" project. (SR)

Study examined the relationship between future teachers' reflections and growth in their teaching abilities in an early field placement. Analysis of data gathered over one semester from reflective journals and multiple observations indicated teacher preparation programs should foster reflective thinking as an important facet of growth in teaching…

Illuminates patterns in responses to literature by analyzing one sixth grader's entries written in her literature response journal. Finds that the student's responses reveal her as an active reader and writer with unique thoughts, feelings. and opinions generated by quality children's literature. (MG)