Journal Writing

Journals are a big part of literacy development in kindergarten.  When the children came back to school after Hurricane Sandy, we asked them to convey what they remember from the storm in a journal entry.  Many children wrote about trees they saw uprooted or a night without electricity in their homes.  Giving the children authentic opportunities to write inspires them to engage deeply in the writing process.  They do not see this work as a chore that is not as fun as play, but rather as a new and exciting way to communicate their thoughts to those around them.

They practice stretching out the sounds in the words that they want to write, and they develop their fine motor abilities as they write.  They learn to use resources around the room, like our word wall, and each other, as they offer help to their friends when they see opportunities to do so.  For every journal entry there is a space to draw and a space to write words.  Children in kindergarten have a wide range of skill levels.  We encourage the children that wherever they are compared to their peers, that is just fine.  The important thing to remember is that we are a community of learners exploring new terrains together.  We will all make mistakes, and we will all learn from them.  Our classroom is a safe space where all are supported, and all understand that it is normal for us to have different abilities.

In their journals they write with what we call developmental spelling, or kid writing.  The goal is for them to write phonetically, without paying too much attention to conventional spelling.  This technique allows them to build their phonemic awareness, and slowly unravel the code of written language.   After they are done we write what we call book writing under their words so that we can better understand and remember what they wrote.  We tell them that this is what their writing would look like if they saw it in a book.  So, it is okay for them to spell things "wrong".  This is the way they will learn best.  It is far too difficult and unreasonable for us to expect children at this age to spell things conventionally.  The English language has far too many inconsistencies for that.  So the children develop a positive attitude towards the writing process as they are encouraged to continue sounding out words and writing what they hear, as opposed to feeling like they are spelling everything wrong and feeling defeated by the enormity of the task.  In kindergarten there is a focus on maintaining the natural joy of learning.  In this way, a foundation of a true love of learning is built for the purpose of carrying them forward into the rest of their school journey.