The Beginning of Dialogue Journals

When researching effective instructional methods for ELLs, I came across dialogue journals. Linnell (2010) describes this activity in her article, Using Dialogue Journals to Focus on Form. Linnell describes these journals as “written conversations between a student and the teacher and sometimes between students themselves. Topics may be chosen by the student or suggested by the teacher in response to classroom curriculum or student experiences,” (pg. 1). The purpose of dialogue journals is for teachers to model appropriate language usage and mechanics, while developing a strong student-teacher relationship.

To first introduce dialogue journals to my Small Group, I read the story, You Are Special by Max Lucado. I chose this book as a read aloud because it seemed to be the perfect  book for the beginning of the school year. The message in this book is to be yourself and embrace your individuality.  The author also teaches his readers to ignore other people’s opinions about you. I thought the message in this book was strong and appropriate for beginning the dialogue journal activity. After reading the book, my group and I discussed what a dialogue was, how people participate in dialogue, etc. I distributed journals and a writing prompt to kick start our dialogue. I chose to assign a writing prompt for the fist entry because I felt it would ease students into this activity and provide a basis for conversation, versus telling them to write to me about anything they wanted. I assured students that these were private conversations between me and them, and encouraged them to write freely. I set the timer for fifteen minutes and allowed students to get to work.

This is the writing prompt:

 

You Are Special by Max Lucado

1.     What is the message of this story? Think about what the author wants you to learn from this story.

2.    Describe (tell all about) a time when someone made you feel special.

3.     As your teacher, how can I help you feel special?

 

While students were responding to this writing prompt, I began my observations. Five of the six students went right to work. Kevin, however, struggled with this task, sitting with a blank stare, tapping his pencil on his notebook. Finally, after three minutes, Kevin got to work. When ten minutes had passed, I gave students a five minute warning, and encouraged them to answer all three questions. At this point, all students were engaged in this task, and absorbed in their writing. Two students finished before the timer went off (Brian and Anthony), but the other four needed another minute to finish their thoughts.

I did not ask for immediate feedback on this activity because I wanted to wait until we have had more opportunities to write back and forth. However, I noted in my observations when students were finished, that all the girls and Brian seemed excited to share their responses with me and asked when I was going to read them and write back. I explained that this process would take place every other day, they would write in their journals on Monday and Wednesday, and I would respond on Tuesday and Thursday.

When reading the responses to the prompt, everyone was able to accurately describe the author’s message in our story. When responding to the second question (describe a time you have felt special), 4 of the 6 described a special time spent with family. Brian described feeling special in third grade when he won four awards. Anthony’s responses to all three questions were vague; he only wrote one or two sentences for each question. He said he felt special when he got a video game.

As their teacher, I was most excited about reading their responses to the third question: What can I do to make them feel special? Of the six students, five explained that I can make them feel special by teaching them more math or science. Jessica explained that I can make her feel special by being myself. I thought that was a great response, and a very mature approach to this assignment! Two students reciprocated the dialogue aspect (this surprised me!) and asked what they can do to make me feel special. Again, this demonstrates a maturity in their thought processes and a genuine consideration for me as their teacher and reflection on the questions I asked.

Although this was just our first experience with dialogue journals, I am really excited about this new activity. I know I will learn a lot about my students through this activity, and I hope they learn a lot about me. My goal for this is for each response to be written freely, without a lot of prompting on my part. The dialogue journals allow students and I to open up to each other and comfortably share information we normally wouldn’t in a whole group setting.