Is writing supposed to be easily identifiable and classifiable? I don’t think we should put strict limits on our writing; however, … A diary can be used for thoughts we are not ready or willing to share whereas a journal could be seen as a more informal ground to sort through the rubble that is our thoughts.
Journals can be so much more than diaries because there is no exact definition, so drawing and doodling and writing and listing and questioning and joking can all be part of journaling.
In the classroom, I think that may be the easiest as well as the most difficult thing to explain to the students – you don’t have to know until you know, and you won’t know until you have played with it, until you have made it yours.
I guess journaling could be used as an assessment tool as well if one chooses to adopt Kelly Gallagher’s “everyone improves” approach. One notebook or composition book or whatever chosen can show students and teachers how each have developed over the passage of a school year. The teachers will be able to look at their own improved prompts as well as the students’ improved responses, and the students have undeniable evidence that they have evolved over the course of that school year. (If they indeed made the effort… I am trying to adopt a more positive outlook, so let’s please pretend the students live in La-La-Land with us!)
I was told once that journaling may turn into diary writing if we’re not careful, and then you, the teacher, have to deal with the issues that are written out in the students’ notebooks; however, if I can make my students understand the difference between the two, we should be on the way to becoming productive journal keepers.
- Ellie Myron