All students in Holly Handlin's Seventh grade English classes keep a journal ...
The journal is like the backbone of the whole year. They hand it in several times throughout the year and this is the way Holly gets to know her students. See the assignment .
Mrs. Handlin says:
"I tell them that's the only way I am going to get to know each one of you, because I have a 115 of you. So how can I get to know each one? So you have to kind of communicate with me with this vehicle, this journal. And we start that right away."
Holly's students have read books in the summer, so she uses those summer books for their first journal writings.
"We spend two or three weeks just talking about journal writing ... I have expanded that time ... I used to just sort of shove the journal in their face and say 'Ok, here is your journal, go to it.' Then I realized that I had to give them time. That is another thing that I have learned... Time is really important, they need time. They shouldn't feel rushed. So I go over it and they read each others' journals and we make lists of what makes a good journal. We try to develop the criteria together so they will know themselves how to judge it ...Probably almost all of September we spend just doing journals and then I give them stories to read so they are writing about it ..."
There are also three types of writings in the first two weeks of the journal unit that they focus on:
- Their own questions
- In class: To practice on a story and to share their writing with each other
- At home: To think about their summer readings
- My questions
- Creative journal entries
- Ask and answer your own questions
- Answer Mrs. Handlin's questions (sheets and Throughlines)
Now try doing something a little more creative, like the following:
- Write a letter to one of the characters and then put yourself in his or her shoes and write back.
- Write a letter to the author of the story
- Write a script or transcript of a TV or radio talk show with one or more characters as guests. What questions would the host (for example, David Letterman) ask the character(s)?
- Rewrite a part of the story or book that you feel needs change and/or improvement. Often people don't like how a story ends, for example.
- Draw an illustration of an important event and explain why the event is important to the story (drawing and explanation = one page of writing).
- Any other idea that you come up with and I approve.
