I use journals almost daily. I say almost because there have been approximately 3-5 days that I have not had the students do some form of a journal, even though almost all classwork is completed in the journals. The journals I have been using have been great. I give students a choice each day: 1) free write (about anything), 2) respond to a prompt that I provide, or 3) respond to the quote on the board (which I post each day under my "Daily Inspiration" section). Students have been writing more and more throughout the semester and when given a short survey about the journals and their writing, almost every students said that they feel more comfortable in their writing skills and they look forward to doing their journals when they get to class, even those students who used to hate writing. I have learned so much about my students through their journals, many have told me things that have been bothering them and even discussed more serious matters that I have had to take to the counselor. Although this makes things stressful for me as well, I know that it's really helping them to discuss these things and I am so happy that they trust me enough to do so. I once heard a quote that read: "people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care" and I absolutely believe this is true. The students have been getting more and more motivated to complete their work in the journals and outside of the journals and the work has been of better quality overall regarding grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, and the like as time has gone by. I also have several ESL students who have written on several occasions that they feel the communication in the journals has helped their English and grammar over the course of the semester! :-)
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