Listed below you’ll find links to various articles and printables on journal writing, where students can keep a continual documentation of their expressions, feelings, and experiences. Journals are also an excellent form of non-traditional assessment. Students can reflect on their thoughts about new concepts without feeling as if they are being tested.

The Concept of Journaling

Learn how to incorporate journaling in your classroom. Teachers can use journaling as a kind of window into how students are thinking about what they are learning. This is a great assessment tool as well.

This printable outline of journal guidelines describes the method students should follow when keeping a journal for class.

Distribute an article that explains four alternative ways to assess your students’ reading skills.

Use this blank page for journal writing in any subject or grade. Here is a printable list of journal topic ideas.

Daily Journal Topics

Using a daily journal helps students maintain a collection of their thoughts and feelings.

Assign one of 10 journal topics for students on the subject of communities.

Assign one of 10 journal topics for students on the subject of school.

Assign one of seven journal topics for students on the subject of Fabulous Families.

Assign one of 10 journal topics for students on the subject of food.

Assign one of six journal topics for students on the subject of “A Trip to Washington, D.C.”

Assign one of five journal topics for students on the subject of Early American Life.

Assign one of eight journal topics for students on the subject of Native Americans.

Assign one of 10 journal topics for students.

Assign one of 10 journal topics for students on the subject of friends.

Assign one of seven journal topics for students celebrating the U.S.A.

Assign one of 10 journal topics for students on the subject of their state.

Assign one of eight journal topics for students on the subject of Faraway Children and Celebrations.

Assign one of seven journal topics for students on the subject of George Washington. These writing prompts are perfect for Presidents’ Day.

Assign one of seven journal topics for students on the subject of Abraham Lincoln. These writing prompts are perfect for Presidents’ Day.

Assign one of 10 journal topics for students on the subject of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This printable provides a great starting-off point for sparking critical thinking about Dr. King, civil rights, and American history. Use it in your Black History Month curriculum (February).

Students explore the topic of shelter with related activities.

Assign one of 10 journal topics for students on the subject of Thanksgiving. This printable activity will improve students’ writing skills while encouraging them to think critically about the American holiday of Thanksgiving.

Assign one of 10 journal topics for students on the subject of maps and globes.

Assign one of six journal topics for students on the subject of Exceptional Explorers.

Assign one of six journal topics for students on the subject of the U.S. presidency.

Students are asked to write on topics about famous people.

A list of suggested journal entry topics for students to use when writing. Print some blank journal pages for kids to use.

Observational Journal Writing

Journal writing allows students to express their feelings about a variety of topics.

Students learn to look beyond the basics and see things as they really are. Then they write about these observations in their journals.

In this winter science activity, your students will learn observational skills while viewing snow.

Explore multiculturalism and diversity with this printable. Students will learn about a child living in another country and share the story with their peers through a class book.

Writing from Personal Experience

Students use personal experiences as writing topics; a personal inventory is included.

Reflective journals are notebooks that students use when writing about their own thoughts. This encourages the development of metacognitive skills by helping students sort what they know from what they don’t know.

Introduce students to autobiographical journal writing with this lesson plan.

Reading Response Journals

Use a double-entry journal, a graphic organizer included with this article, to encourage students to organize their thoughts on a specific subject in a new way. New teachers will find this resource particularly valuable.

In the left column of a double entry journal graphic organizer, students write a piece of information, such as a quotation or a concept, which they want to question. In the right column, students relate to or analyze the information that is written in the left column. This printable is customizable. Tailor the PDF to your teaching needs by typing in the highlighted fields before printing.

• Using a Double-Entry Journal with Shakespeare’s Hamlet

  Learn how to incorporate journaling in while teaching Shakespeare’s play The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Teachers can use journaling as a window into how students are thinking about what they are learning.

  Encourage your students to react to books on a personal level with reading response journals.

  Students will use these journals to respond to reading assignments.

  Students pretend to be a character in a book as they create journal entries.

  A dialogue journal is an informal written conversation between two or more people (student-student or student-teacher) about topics of mutual interest. These written conversations reinforce learning while forming bonds between students that can provide a foundation for later cooperative learning activities.

• Dialogue Journals with Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

  Students will demonstrate a beginning understanding of how to use dialogue journals or written conversations to express themselves in a written format by identifying previous experiences and relating them to the story.

• Journaling with The Sun, Wind, and the Rain

  This lesson, to be completed after reading The Sun, the Wind, and the Rain. has students practice their journaling skills.

  Journaling in Math

  Writing about mathematics helps students articulate their thinking, and provides useful information for teachers about learning difficulties, incorrect assumptions, and student’s progress in communicating about mathematics.

  This form is for students to comment on their performance during daily math lessons. This is a great way for children to monitor their own progress of their math skills.

  Discover an introduction to comparing fractions with unlike denominators. Students will compare fractions represented by drawings or models with unlike denominators.

  Use a lesson that is an introduction to comparing fractions with like denominators and unlike numerators, for students with a basic understanding of fractions as part of a whole, numerators, and denominators. Students use math journals to complete the lesson.

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