Developing Fluency Through

Journaling BY: Denisse Gastelum

Spring 2013

The Problem Writing fluency has always been one of the difficult writing skills faced by low and average proficiency students.

Hiew , Wendy . "The Effectiveness of Using Literature Response Journal To Improve Students’ Writing Fluency ." International Refereed Research Journal . 1.1 (2010): 1-13. Web. 22 Apr. 2013

What is Fluency, Anyway?

The term “sentence fluency” refers to the way individual words and phrases sound together within a sentence, and how groups of sentences sound when read one after the other.

OnDemandInstruction , . What Sentence Fluency Looks Like in Writing . 2013. Video . Youtube.com. 15 Apr 2013. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYTWGtcc3Q8

Why is Fluency a Problem?

Students often find it hard to pen their thoughts and feelings due to the lack of vocabulary knowledge, writing practice and reading.

Hiew , Wendy . "The Effectiveness of Using Literature Response Journal To Improve Students’ Writing Fluency ." International Refereed Research Journal . 1.1 (2010): 1-13. Web. 22 Apr. 2013

Why Can’t They Figure It Out?

Students don’t write enough.

Remember that Practice makes better.

What Can We Do About It?

The only way to begin is to get the students writing.

In order to become comfortable with writing, students need to “practice a lot… and they need to write every day.”

Kerby, Dan. Inside Out: Strategies for Teaching Writing . 3ed. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2004. 61-75. Print.

The Good News is that…

Why Does the Journal Help?

Lets start with the fact that journaling isn’t a whole class activity.

It is personal. The writing never goes public unless the writer allows it.

Personal writing is less threatening, and therefore much more appealing.

Kerby, Dan. Inside Out: Strategies for Teaching Writing . 3ed. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2004. 61-75. Print.

“The journal, because it’s a private, protected place, becomes an invitation to open up, to explore, to dip into that stream of language.”

Kerby, Dan. Inside Out: Strategies for Teaching Writing . 3ed. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2004. 61-75. Print.

The Journal and Fluency

Getting the students to write is the first step towards better fluency, and students love to write about one thing more than anything—themselves.

What Do They Write About ?

If they do not write about themselves, students often respond to a quote, poem, story, or prompt I share with them.

EX: “Many people disappear in these camp. But my sister, she disappear little by little everyday.” What does Arn mean by this?

Benefits To Journaling

Developing Writers While they write, students will start developing certain skills such as:

Fluency VoiceA Sense of Audience And Self Reflection Schmidt , Hank G. . "Writing to Learn: Can reflection Journals be Used to Promote Self-Reflection and Learning." Higher Education

Research and Development . 30.4 (2011): 15 Apr. 2013. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2010.512627

Multypurpose

The journals could be used to:Respond to readings Doodle while listening to a story Write rough drafts (a writer’s

journal) Dialogue between teacher and

studentResearch logs for research papers

(all their research in one place)

Experiment with Writing

The journal gives students a place to be creative with their writing.

When you share a piece of writing to students challenge them to mimic it in their journals, and because its confidential they will more than likely participate.

Relationships I am so proud of the

relationships I have built with my students!

In their journals, they tell me things they would not feel comfortable telling me face to face, and most of those things help me understand who they are and what they are all about.

How to Grade These S.O.Bs

Grading for Completion

Ste a limit to the minimum they can write and if they reach that, they get full credit.

The key is FLUENCY not perfect grammar or conventions.

*My Min is ½ a page. They also must include the prompt number or title, and a date to get full credit.

Student Graders Give each student a quarterly partner. Tell

them their partner is going to be reading their journals and grading them for completion.

Your job is to make sure they are all graded and to enter the grade.

* Journals will not be as personal, and students will not want to participate as much if they know a peer is going to read them.

Staggering Grade one class a day. -Monday (1st hour)-Tuesday (2nd hour) -Wednesday…

You can also grade for completion here, but spend a little extra time to make comments or not just skim student writing.

Grading is the Funnest Part

Mhmmm… that’s right! I love reading through my student’s journals, and it doesn’t feel like I’m grading!

The key is to give students options for writing—they can respond to the prompt or write about anything they want.

**you’ll get some crazy funny stories!

Mad Voice Excerpt

“I am tired of you taking my stuff. Next time you do it I will hurt you. I am running out of money because you keep stealing it so you can buy yourself food. You are also stealing my stuff I bought to use for my homework. I am going to catch you one day, and when I do I am going to hurt you bad. I don’t know why you are stealing from me if I give you what you want most of the time…” --Jaime

Personal Writing

“I was gone for three days because my dad died on Friday . On Monday my mom had to go fill out papers. Tuesday we had the service and visited many family members. I’m sad that my dad isn’t here, but the thing about my dad dying is that he is no longer in pain from the lung cancer. RIP dad.” –Angel

Hilarious Writing

“De’Andre had a STANKY attitude today for no reason. he just got back too so he better chill out. and Summer is tryin to fight me over a baby that’s not even hers but she is weird and that baby aint even cute. It kinda looks like summer (ugly), but I aint tripin. Its whatever and I’m over her STANK little attutude!!”

--Shalesea

More Hilariousness

“Today I did my work in all my classes. I was on task and not playin today. I had fun in all my classes. At recess this girl was starring at me. She likes me. I was mad because she wouldn’t stop so I went over there and told her to stop looking at me fore I claim sexual harassment.”

--De’Andre

References Benke, Nicole. "Response Journals: Keeping Students Tuned In During Read-Alouds." English

Journal 95.2 (2005): 113-115. Education Full Text (H.W. Wilson). Web. 15 Apr. 2013Hiew , Wendy . "The Effectiveness of Using Literature Response Journal To Improve Students’

Writing Fluency ." International Refereed Research Journal . 1.1 (2010): 1-13. Web. 22 Apr. 2013

Jones, Leona L. . "Writing and Self-Discovery: Journals Encourage Fluency in Both ." Schools in the Middle . 5. (1995): 13-15 . Web. 15 Apr. 2013. <http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=EJ513912&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=EJ513912>.

Kerby, Dan. Inside Out: Strategies for Teaching Writing . 3ed. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2004. 61-75. Print.

OnDemandInstruction , . What Sentence Fluency Looks Like in Writing . 2013. Video . Youtube.com. 15 Apr 2013. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYTWGtcc3Q8

Schmidt , Hank G. . "Writing to Learn: Can reflection Journals be Used to Promote Self-Reflection and Learning." Higher Education Research and Development . 30.4 (2011): 15 Apr. 2013. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2010.512627