Journal writing is a useful technique for inservice and preservice education of teachers of English as a second language (ESL) as well as for teaching adult ESL learners. Journals help ESL teachers overcome isolation experienced in practice and help students acquire structural, communicative, and critical competence. (Contains 17 references.) (SK)

Explains the process of using science journals with first and second grade students in three activities to explore the instructional sequence. Suggests some strategies to use journals more effectively and makes recommendations on important points for student evaluation. (YDS)

Examined how a team of teacher educators collaborated and recorded their conversations of change over time using a polylog a (common journal). As part of the conversation, instructors shared information and insights about instructional decisions, feelings, student responses, continued professional reading, and responses to each others' questions.…

Examined the use of alternative forms of representation to explore teachers' practical knowledge. Conversation, drawing, metaphor, and story writing encouraged a group of early childhood teachers to make multiple probes into their way of knowing how to manage the complexities of teaching. Case studies illustrate how these methods can enhance…

Discusses using two alternative assessment methods, journals and portfolios, with preservice teachers in an elementary mathematics methods course. (Contains 13 references.) (ASK)

Discusses how one teacher uses Norma Fox Mazer's "Out of Control" to explore leaders and followers as the main topic of discussion in a sophomore class. Describes how students keep a reader's journal with quotations from the text and personal responses. (SG)

Describes a summer writing course by presenting a diary embellished with writing exercises, a course guide, a list of writing activities that can be taken as starters, and assessments. Discusses how each participant is asked to create a text about a city which has a considerable visual presence, and to explore stereotypical and mythical versions…

With the talk of "accountability" and "progress" in schools across the country, it's no wonder that assessment is on everyone's minds. And, it should be. Well designed pre- and postassessments provide students with a clear idea of what they are expected to know after a set of learning experiences. Effective assessments also help teachers hone…

This project investigated six 2nd-grade students' use of word study instruction to mediate spelling while writing in their journals. In particular, the researchers examined the students' use of the orthographic principles, sample words, and spelling strategies that had been taught during developmental word study lessons. Results of the project…

This paper examines the history, rationale, uses and abuses of writing journals in primary classrooms. We argue that writing journals form part of a pedagogy derived from an understanding of how children can be motivated to express themselves, independently of teachers. Moreover, they demonstrate the power of welcoming children's home cultures…

Although pervasive throughout counseling psychology and other training programs that incorporate experiential activities, reflective journals have sparse, fragmented and disparate theoretical bases to support their use. Coming from the fields of counseling and professional education, the authors use counselor education as a template to explore the…

The words blog, blogger, blogging, and blogosphere have entered online technological dictionaries in the last decade. Recently, these personal electronic journals have received more attention and their increased popularity has led to their regular use in many different settings including the news, the political arena, and even in education. This…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to consider "friendsickness" as experienced by 96 entering college students. As defined here, "friendsickness" is a challenge new students experience when they leave their established network of friends and begin college. Journal entries written by new students in first-year seminars were examined and…

The genocide of American Indians over the last five centuries is documented by the persecutors in myriad historical media: diaries, audiotapes, autobiographies, photographs, books, essays, and newspaper accounts. Many authors believe that their stories convey an objective reality but scholarship has illustrated that writers construct history more…

The author presents journal entries from her first 7 months as a foster parent of a 5-week-old girl in 2000, illustrating how she, her husband, and her birth children wrestled with their emotions and their role as a foster family. Their expectations of themselves as temporary caretakers were reinforced in foster parent training. What the training…