A Balanced Approach to

Assessing Student JournalsJoni Koehler

August 15, 2014Benavides Elementary School

Taught middle school English in Lytle ISD for 9 years.

Collaborative Learning Leader for 7 years. M.A. from UTSA C& I (Literacy and

Language Development) December 2011.

Contact me at: koehler.joni@gmail.com

Joni Koehler

At the end of this session, you will have a couple of new ideas to try when assessing student work in journals.

Objective

IntroductionAssessing journals when children write-

Personal/Private ResponsesResponse to Text/Thinking Responses

Formal Responses to new learningClosure

Agenda

◦ Students who write about what they read show increases in reading comprehension.

◦ Students show reading comprehension gains when taught the processes and skills associated with texts.

◦ Teaching sentence construction skills improves reading fluency.

◦ Teaching spelling improves word reading skills.◦ Students who write more tend to read better.

Writing to Read: Evidence for How Writing Can Improve Reading

Graham & Hebert, 2010.

What does the research say?

Think about the research I just shared with you. Take a few minutes to write a personal response to this research.

If you are stuck, you can write about whether the research meshes with your own experiences and beliefs.

Response

Journaling with prompts or self-selected topics.

Short bursts of time to write about ◦ What I learned yesterday◦ What I learned in the lesson we just did◦ What I want to know more about

Personal Responses

Look at your response to the introduction.

Find one sentence of your response that really rings true to you.

Write it down on a sticky note.

Put it in the middle of the table.

Now circulate and find a sentence that doesn’t belong to you, but resonates with you. Pick it up and take it back to your seat.

Scoring Private Responses

Take 10 minutes to read P. David Pearson’s explanation of the reading/writing connection.

As you read, highlight anything that seems important to you.

Responding to Text

Now, write a 3- 2 – 1 response to the text.

◦ 3 things I am thinking as I read◦ 2 questions about the text◦ 1 analogy related to the text

Example: Reading and Writing are conjoined twins. You can separate them, but one will not be completely whole without the other.

Responding to Text

More structured and focused on responding to something students have read.

Personal Reactions Analyzing and Interpreting Text Summarizing Text Note-taking Answer or create questions about a text.

Thinking Responses

Look at your 3-2-1 response. Circle the most important or pressing

statement that you have made or question that you have.

Leave your journal open to this page. I will respond to your journals tonight. This will be part of your grade for our reading/writing connection unit.

Scoring Thinking Responses

Take a few moments to write 3 (or more) well constructed sentences about new ideas you have had this morning.

These sentences will demonstrate that you have been paying attention and are ready to put the new learning into place.

Make sure that you craft your sentences for an audience to read.

Demonstrate New Learning

More formalized. Use of the writing process (Pre-Writing,

Drafting, Editing and Revision, Publishing) Used to show what students have learned. Yes, it can all be in the journal. Then

students will have a record of their writing skill to look back at when they do subsequent formal writing.

Demonstrate New Learning

Look at your 3 sentences. Find your topic. Put the number “1” beside

the place where you wrote your topic. Underline every capital letter. Put a circle around all of your punctuation

marks.(Periods, commas, etc.)

Scoring Writing that Demonstrates Learning

You don’t have to score everything. Assessing doesn’t always mean grading. Involve the children.

◦Give them a framework for understanding the difference between the different types of responses.

◦Involve them in decision making about what you will grade.

◦Allow them to give feedback to one another.

Make it easy on yourself.

Do you have some new ideas about assessing student journals?

Contact me at koehler.joni@gmail.com

Objective

References

Graham,S. & Hebert, M. (2010). Writing to Read: Evidence for how writing can improve reading. Carnegie Corporation, New

York.NWP(2002). Thinking about the reading/writing connection with P.

David Pearson. The Voice, March-April 2002.