Journals
Today,
journals occupy a prominent role in a pedagogical model that stresses the
importance of self-reflection in the process of students taking control of
their own destiny. A journal is a log (or “account”) of one’s thoughts,
feelings, reactions, assessments, ideas, or progress toward goals, usually
written with little attention to structure, form, or correctness.
Models
of journals use in educational practice have sought to tighten up this style of
journal in order to give them some focus (Staton at al., 1987). The result is
the emergence of a number of categories or purposes in journal writing, such as
the following:
·
Language-learning logs
In English language teaching, learning
logs have the advantages of sensitizing students to the importance of setting
their own goals and then self-monitoring their achievement.
·
Grammar journals
These types of journals are especially
appropriate for courses and workshops that focus on grammar.
·
Responses to readings
These journals have the specified
purpose of simple responses to readings (and/or to other material such as
lectures, presentations, films, and videos).
·
Strategies-based
learning logs
The specialized journals that focus on strategies
that learners are seeking to become aware of and to use in their acquisition
process and are closely allied to language-learning logs.
·
Self-assessment
reflections
With the possibility of a few stimulus
questions, students’ journals can extend beyond the scope of simple one-word or
one-sentence responses.
·
Diaries of attitudes,
feelings, and other affective factors
The affective states of learners are
important element of self-understanding.
·
Acculturation logs
Because culture and language are so
strongly linked, awareness
of the symptoms of acculturation stages can provide keys to eventual language
success.
Most
classroom-oriented journals are what have now come to be known as dialog
journals. They imply an interaction between a reader (the teacher) and the
students through dialogues or responses. Journals obviously serve important
pedagogical purposes: practice in the mechanics of writing, using writing as a
“thinking” process, individualization, and communication with the teacher.
It
is important to turn the advantages and potential drawbacks of journals into
positive journals into positive general steps and guideline for using journals
as assessment instruments as follows:
·
Sensitively introduce
students to the concept of journal writing.
Show the students examples of journal
entries and give specific topics and schedules for writing in order to make
them comfortable with the process.
·
State the objective(s)
of the journal.
Integrate journal writing into the
objectives of the curriculum in some way, especially if journal entries become
topics of class discussion.
·
Give guidelines on what
kinds of topics to include.
Give clear guidelines to ease the
students in including
the topics into their journals.
·
Carefully specify the
criteria for assessing or grading journals.
Let the students know what kinds of
criteria that will be used to assess their journals. Furthermore, maintain
reliability by adhering conscientiously to the criteria that you have set up.
·
Provide optimal
feedback in your responses.
McNamara (1998, p.39) recommended three
different kinds of feedback to journals:
§ Cheerleading
feedback, in which you celebrate successes with the students or encourage them
to preserve through difficulties.
§ Instructional
feedback, in which you suggest strategies or materials, suggest ways to fine-tune
strategy use, or instruct students to their writing.
§ Reality-check
feedback, in which you help the students to
set more realistic expectations for their language
abilities.
·
Designate appropriate
time frames and schedules for review.
It is essential to budget enough time
within a curriculum for both writing journals and for your written responses.
Therefore, set schedules for submitting journal entries periodically, return
them in short order.
·
Provide formative,
washback-giving comments.
Journals are the most formative of all
the alternatives in assessment. They are day-by-day (or at least weekly)
chronicles of progress whose purpose is to provide a thread of continuous
assessment and reassessment, to recognize mid-stream direction changes, and or
to refocus on goals. Therefore, it is might be better for giving credit for the
process of actually writing the journal, and possibly a distinction might be
made among high, moderate, and low effort or quality. But to accomplish the
goal of positive feedback, narrative summary comments and suggestions are
clearly in order.
