Why is journal writing for esl students the absolute best thing ever I think? Because it’s an activity that has a host of benefits! I first started doing it when a colleague told me of it, and I haven’t looked back since. I use journals in all my grade levels – they bring their own journal and leave it in the classroom the entire year – and student bring them from one grade level to the next as well. Let me tell you why I think you should journal with students too! If you want to skip ahead and check out my Topic Picker Cheat Sheet to find topics to journal about with students, click here!
When I first heard of using journals with students I didn’t think much of it. I feared that students wouldn’t take it seriously, that they wouldn’t like to write, that even if they did it wasn’t going to be much, and other worries of the sort. But I can honestly say, none of these proved to be true. My students do take it seriously – one naughty boy or girl excluded, they do like to write about the topics I give to them, and most of the time I can’t get them to stop! And I teach teenagers, mind you.. Let’s talk about why it’s awesome.
What are the benefits of journal writing?
Some of the benefits of journal writing for esl students are that it enhances your ability to reflect on and process experiences, it promotes critical thought and expressing feelings, and it helps with writing focused arguments. That means that journal writing can be done for a variety of topics. If there was an event or holiday that occurred, you may want to ask how students experienced it. If there is a topic or issue you want students to form an opinion on you may want to ask them to write an argumentative piece on it. Or you may just want students to describe things in their lives and around them. Whatever the topic, a journal is a safe place to write about these things. The pieces students write should not be used for grading, but simply as a tool for them to improve their writing.
Because this is what will happen. When students are encouraged to think through their argumentation, their writing will become stronger. When they are urged to think about their feelings, reflections will become clearer. Students will become better writers, especially if you allow them to peer review each other’s work. Peer review will help students to improve their sentence structure and language use as an added bonus, and reading each other’s work will also allow them to see how they could improve their own work.
How to do journal writing well
The journal is personal
As I said, I always start by telling students to bring a new journal to school. This allows my students to choose a journal for themselves that they will use for years to come. They can choose their own cover and they will also have the opportunity to personalize it. I will make clear to them that other students won’t read what they wrote if they don’t want that, and that the journal is a safe place to write in. Nothing in it will be for a grade, so mistakes may be made in abundance. This commitment will also help you make better personal connections with students and student will feel more comfortable.
Set the time
Besides knowing it’s safe to write, students have to know how long they should be writing for. I always tell them that they should try to write as much as they can and for as long as I tell them to. This may be 5 minutes, or 15. Setting clear time boundaries will help students stay focused longer and force them to think on a topic better. Not all students are naturally good at this. This means you have to make sure to keep them quiet even if they feel like they’re done already. Make sure it’s safe enough for every student to write as much as they want to.
Peer feedback and my feedback
I will tell them beforehand that there may be peer feedback once in a while, and I will occasionally give feedback too. They must do what they can with the tips they get, in order to become better at writing. Peer feedback should therefore be a serious matter, and any feedback they give should be useful to the other student.
Topics for journal writing
Once we have all the journals stored in one place per class, I start with the first assignment. I will start them off with an introduction activity. Tell me who you are, who your family is, where you live, etcetera. In the weeks that follow, I will give my year 1 students – who are 11 or 12 – various prompts about friends, hobbies, favorite foods. In other words, I give them topics from their daily lives. I have them write about all the major holidays whenever they come up, reflections on breaks they get throughout the year, and events the school organizes. Topics for journal writing can be anything!
Quite often I use grammar topics to guide our writing as well. For example, when we are learning about the Future tense, I will have them write about their plans for the future. Or when we are discussing modals, I will have them create the ideal set of school rules. I do this with all my grade levels, since there are always topics to discuss in each year, all be there more of them in the lower years.
Meaty subjects
With my oldest students I also start with an introduction activity. Then rather quickly I dive into more meaty material, like favorite jobs or career perspectives, goals for this academic year, money, and global issues the world faces. I will have them write argumentative pieces on national holidays or school events. And with my students in between, with whom I discuss a lot of literary works, we will often write about the characters and themes within these works, or topics that we can discuss in light of these stories.
I’ve made a handy cheat sheet for you to choose useful topics to have students write about throughout the year. Download it, and you’ll have no trouble choosing a topic!
I’ve also created a bundle of discussion cards that might come in handy for you. Check them out here.
Journal writing for ESL students went beyond my expectations!
Journal writing for ESL students is awesome! It doesn’t really matter what they write about, actually. All I know is, whenever I give my students a topic to write about, they go at it like crazy. They write until I have to tell them to stop. And they take it super seriously, because they want me to see their best work. It usually takes me so much longer to give feedback, because I’ve got so much more to read from them. It’s the best, and you should definitely try it!
If you want to read about writing prompts for fiction, check out this article about Roll the Dice Writing Prompts!
If you want to read more about writing practice for a test, read 5 Brilliant Writing Tips for TOEFL.
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