The Power of a Guided Journal: Reflective Practice

Why It Matters: Encouraging children to write regularly and independently is important. Providing children with guided options for writing outside of school can help them develop daily writing habits and become more confident and expressive writers.

A Backstory: Since the Summer of 2020, I’ve expected my daughter, Isabelle, to engage in a writing project. I encouraged her to restart blogging, but she wanted me to give her a writing choice board. That felt too much like prompt writing to me, so we agreed to a semi-structured journal instead. After searching through many journals at Barnes & Noble, she decided to go with the Little Hero’s Journal, which empowers kids “to develop a growth-mindset, a can-do attitude, and the confidence to be themselves.”

The Big Picture: Prompts are a scaffold that can be helpful to writers in the short term. I’ve always been concerned that an over-reliance on prompts or writing choice boards restricts choice and limits creativity. I prefer teaching students strategies for generating writing rather than relying on prompts to get started.

Yes, but: It’s summertime. I wanted Isabelle to use her writing muscles so they wouldn’t atrophy when she begins seventh grade. A semi-structured journal was a compromise to keep her writing all summer long.

How It Works: Isabelle began writing in her journal in early July once our family finally got into a routine after a challenging June. She knew I would check her journal every few days to ensure she was writing. Otherwise, she knew it was her place to engage in greenbelt writing.

The Impact: Since starting her journal writing, she’s only missed one day (which she made up, without prompting from me) of writing. Isabelle writes in her journal daily, without me pushing, because she enjoys it. She says it’s easy! She knows I won’t correct her spelling or say a word about her handwriting. As a result, it’s become a place where she enjoys expressing herself.

Examples in Action: With Isabelle’s permission, I’m sharing several page spreads from the past five weeks of her journal use.

What’s Next: Isabelle will begin middle school at the end of the month. I hope she won’t be loaded with homework, so she’ll continue to make time to finish this journal (which is technically a 13-week endeavor) and maybe even buy a new one so she will keep writing daily.

The Bottom Line: In the writing workshop, we teach students many strategies to generate writing. If we want kids to write daily outside of school, we can provide them with guided options, so they become the kind of kid who writes without adult prompting.