Writing Journals in a T&T World (Tech & Testing)

"Journaling", a concept not new to kids.They don't know that they have been using Writing Journals their whole life. Diaries are the most common way that most of my students have kept a writing journal. Now with technology, I have a lot of students keeping up with blogs, YouTube channels, and of course their Facebook and Instagram accounts. Unfortunately, their type of writing is done mainly through visuals (pictures) and are self centered. In turn when they write in the classroom, their essays are short and dull. Because of the technological,  highly visual, and self centered world we live in I chose the following types of journal entries...

Journal Type 1- Writing ONLY with Your Eyes

In this type of journal the writer tries to pain a picture with the words. With this journal type the writer has to describe what they are seeing with their eyes and making sure that when the reader reads their entry they can see exactly what the writer is looking at. This is a great way to work on their descriptive language and their elaboration. 

Journal Type 2- Thinking about a Person 

Personally, I fins this type of journal entry to be quite easy. Even when I don't intent to, I end up talking about another person, my mom. She is always somehow present in my journal entries. To students writing about themselves and what they do comes natural. Again, we live in a world were we feel compelled to inform others about our lives. How many time do we find in our social feeds pictures and captions on what the person is eating, reading, doing, and even thinking. That has our kids' vision narrowed. Starting to write about other people will widen their topics, help them see beyond themselves, and even learn from someone else. 

Now, think back to when you were a child. Learning to walk is a hard task. As babies we tried to model those before us. As we tried, we fell, but then we tried again. We would fail again, and again, but we kept trying. Until one day we were giving our first steps and parents are running trying to get the camera, and clapping, cheering, smiling; all because we wobbled two steps.
Now imagine a baby, trying to walk. The baby fails to stand up. The adult in front of the baby screaming at him/her. Telling the baby they failed, and they had to push harder, and pay attention to how it's done. Then the baby continues to try. Finally, the baby walks his/her first steps. The adult smiles and sais, "about time! you need to catch up."

Testing and assessments are important to drive instruction, I get it. The problem comes when testing and assessments become our lessons. Students will not learn if we are grading everything they do! Some assignments need to be done as a form of them just trying. I can't expect a baby to stand up and walk on the first try, so why give an assignment to a student to be graded on their first try? The students need the practice and we need to encourage the practices while guiding them. The parents stand by their baby holding their hands, walking at the baby's pace. They don't scold their baby for not doing it on their own. Intentional strategies are important because that is the way we, as teachers, are holding the hands of our babies as they learn to walk.
Just the same, parents don't expect to hold their child's hand every time the child gets up and walk, but they do still walk by them so the child can hold the parent's hand if need be. As teachers we need to shoe the tools to our students and have them available for use if need be. For example, I keep the writing process posted all year round, just in case. I keep copies of different graphic organizers available, just in case if my students feel the need to use them. Do I require them to use it? Of course not. Not every child is the same.

In conclusion, not every task done in the classroom will be an assignment, but they will be Intentional Strategies. From journal entries to full page essays.