13 Personal Writing

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Page 135 from Write for College

Journal Entries

Allow students a few minutes to silently read the sample journal entries. Point out the date of the entry and the fact that everything else that follows is freeform. The whole point of a journal is to provide space for students to think, reflect, and explore.

Tell your students that you want them, also, to keep a journal in a notebook, on a computer, or as an online blog. This journal will not be strictly graded (punctuation, capitalization, spelling, and so forth will not be important). The whole point of the journal is to get students writing and reflecting, and that's all you ask. Tell them they need to produce a certain number of entries per week, reflecting on their lives. Help them know that this activity increases their fluency (how quickly they can put words on a page), gives them many topic ideas, and helps them see writing as a strategy that deepens their thinking.

State Standard Reference:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.10

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Reading

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Journal Prompts

Give class time for students to write a journal entry based on a topic from one of the lists on this page. Recommend they return to the topic lists whenever they are searching for a new idea to explore in their journal.

State Standard Reference:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.10

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Journal

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Writing Writing Project

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Prewriting Writing

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Specialized Journals

Use this page to acquaint students with many types of journals that they might want to try.

The travel log details the experiences and ideas of an important trip.
The reader-response journal deepens their appreciation of literature.
The dialogue journal helps them connect with someone important in their lives.
The fictional journal functions as a creative-writing exercise, allowing them to write from someone else's point of view.
The writer's journal provides space for aspiring writers to jot down ideas, lyrics, jokes, and more.

State Standard Reference:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.10

LAFS Standard:

TEKS Standard:

NE ELA Standard:

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Journal Fictionalized Journal Entry

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Writing Project Writing

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Guidelines: Writing a Blog Post

Lead students through the guidelines for writing blog posts. Students should consider each part of the communication situation but give particular consideration to their audience. Depending on the privacy restrictions, blog posts can reach a potentially global audience. Therefore, students should always ask:

Who are my intended readers? How will they react to my ideas?
What other people could potentially read this? How might they react to my ideas?

To maximize the instruction on this page, students need to draft and publish a blog post on a real blog with an authentic audience. One way to do so is through a classroom blog. If you already host a classroom blog, now is a good time to introduce it to your class, address any rules or access concerns, and explain how you intend for students to use it. If you do not have a classroom blog, consider starting one.

Alternatively, you could have students create their own blogs or group blogs. For example, students could separate themselves into groups (three people minimum) and develop a blog based on a personal interest—sports, pop culture, fishing, theater, fashion, etc. Each group member would be required to write unique blog posts based on the site's general theme.

State Standard Reference:

LAFS Standard:

LAFS.1112.W.1.3

TEKS Standard:

110.38.c.9, 110.38.c.10.A, 110.39.c.9, 110.39.c.10.A

NE ELA Standard:

LA 12.2.1.b, LA 12.2.2, LA 12.2.2.a

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Writing Project Technology Literacy Writing

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Blog Post

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Writing Process Writing Traits of Writing Revising Editing Publishing

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Blog Post

Have a volunteer read the sample blog post for your class. Discuss the writer's voice and word choice. How do they compare to the voice and word choice used in formal essays and reports? Encourage students to use blogging as an opportunity to experiment with and refine their own writing voice.

State Standard Reference:

LAFS Standard:

LAFS.1112.W.1.3

TEKS Standard:

110.38.c.9, 110.38.c.10.A, 110.39.c.9, 110.39.c.10.A

NE ELA Standard:

LA 12.2.1.b, LA 12.2.2, LA 12.2.2.a

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Reading Traits of Writing

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Keeping a Learning Log

Help your students understand that a learning log helps them succeed in any class. A learning log lets students reflect on their learning, and reflection is the point when learning becomes cemented in memory. Just like a regular journal, a learning log will not be graded for punctuation, capitalization, spelling, usage, or grammar. It is a safe place to explore the ideas introduced in class, to reflect on them, to wrestle with them, and to remember and understand them more deeply.

Lead your students through the tips on this page for keeping a learning log. Then ask students to write a learning-log entry in response to something that was discussed or covered in class. You may want to participate in this writing as well. Afterward, have each student underline one discovery they made in their writing.

State Standard Reference:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.10

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TEKS Standard:

NE ELA Standard:

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Learning Log

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Writing Writing to Learn

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Learning Log Entry

Read through the learning log entry and side notes.

State Standard Reference:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.10

LAFS Standard:

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NE ELA Standard:

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Writing Writing to Learn

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Page 142 from Write for College

Asking Deeper Questions

How can students get the most from personal writing? One strategy involves asking progressively deeper questions about a topic of interest. The table on this page shows the connection between the type of question and the depth of the response. Show students how the table begins with questions that seek short, tidy responses and ends with those that seek broad, creative responses that show a mastery of the topic. Note that to reach the deep end, students must first ask questions that help them remember, understand, and apply information.

Have students try out the questioning strategy from the bottom of the page for their next personal-writing entry, asking and answering the questions near the top of the chart, and continuing to move down the list.

State Standard Reference:

LAFS Standard:

LAFS.1112.W.3.7

TEKS Standard:

110.38.c.11, 110.39.c.11

NE ELA Standard:

LA 12.2.2.c

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