Be Social…
Journaling is a skill that benefits people throughout their life. Once people begin keeping a journal it becomes a habit; this not only allows them to document important experiences in their life, but it also helps them improve as a writer. In school, journaling is one of the important skills that students need to develop; the earlier they start doing this the better. The really nice thing about journaling is that it allows children to write in their own style with less emphasis on formality – it means that writing can be fun. It is the aim of this article to provide a few tips for how to help 3rd graders write a good journal entry.
Tips for How to Help 3rd Graders Write a Good Journal Entry
Here are just a few tips for how you can help a 3rd grader write a good journal entry:
- Journal entries need to be personal so it is always best to write them in the first person. It also works best if the writer uses a conversational tone. Young children can become quite muddled about the different types of writing so it helps to provide them with a few examples of journal writing. If you can provide them with a handout containing a couple of examples then this can be very helpful.
- One of the problems that a lot of third graders will have when you tell them to write a journal entry is that they do now know where to start – their mind goes blank. In order to get around this it is suggested that you give them a prompt to get going. For example, you could provide them with the first line, “When I woke up this morning I…”. The student can then begin their journal entry with an exact point already provided.
- I find that it is more motivating if you tell the students that they will need to read their assignment out to the class. They will likely want to impress their friends so they will put more effort into writing a journal entry that is interesting. You could also offer a prize to the best journal entry if you really want them to pour their heats into this assignment.
- Another way to get the ball running is to have a class discussion before you actually get the students to work on their journal. You could divide them into groups and first get them to discuss what they are going to write. This can work like a form of brainstorming and it will provide students with ideas about what they are going to write about. This type of group work can also make the project a lot more exciting for them.
- Another thing you can do to make this assignment more interesting is to get them to draw a picture. This will involve a pictorial description of what they have written about in the text.
Be Social…
