Focus: Students will write journal examples that model entries for a double-entry journal, a problem-solution journal, and a partner journal. Students will also practice using compositional skills focusing on strong verbs and transitional words.

What will you learn in this live class?

This class provides students with valuable information on using three different types of journal entries to record notes on various writing topics. Having knowledge of these three journal entry types promotes the generation of ideas that make narrative writing more complete. Students will also gain from practicing compositional skills of using strong verbs and transitional words in making their writing clear, concise, and interesting to their reading audience. 

Class description: This narrative writing class will be presented in three separate 60-minute sessions for a total of 180 minutes of instruction.

Day one instructional activities will involve the students in making a list of interesting experiences and expanding those experiences in a double-entry journal table labeled: ‘Fact and My Reaction.’ The presentation of instruction includes the following activities:

1. Personal introductions: Location? Favorite subject? Hobby? Expectations for learning?
2. Course Introduction: What is a narrative? Stories that entertain or teach in an entertaining way. They can be oral or written. Written stories are usually more organized and contain a central idea, characters, a plot, descriptive details, and a concluding event.
3. Quick Write Purpose: To help understand how our personal experiences may be interesting to other people. 
   Directions: Make a list of interesting things that you may have done or experienced. The students will share their lists when finished.
   The teacher will provide an example before allowing time for students to write.
4. Introduction to The Three Ways of Journaling: The teacher will explain journal writing as a method of tracking events over time. They usually provide a personal account of events that gives insights or opinions. The information provided often becomes material for longer narratives.
5. Double-Entry Journal: The teacher models how to set up a double-entry journal. Then the students use the three interesting things they may have experienced from their Quick Write to complete a fact/my reaction double entry. When complete, the students will share their entries.
6. Evaluation: Day one instruction ends after each student explains how a double-entry journal promotes writing fluency.

Day 2: Instructional activities will involve students in exploring the processes of the problem/situation journal entry and the use of strong verbs in writing. The students will be able to clearly state a real-life situation and explore possible outcomes.  

Activities:

1. Writing Prompt: Pick an event from your ‘Fact and My Reaction’ table and write a paragraph to share with the class.
2. Problem/Solution Journal Introduction: The teacher will explain how the problem/solution journal differs from the double-entry journal because it does not explain an event, but solves a problem presented in an event or situation. The teacher then provides students with an example of a problem/solution journal entry.
3. Create a Problem/Solution Table: Students will be directed to think of two real-life problems or problems from a book. When the problems have been identified, the students should record the problems and ideas for solutions on their problem/ solution table.
4. Writing Prompt: Write about what would happen if one of your possible solutions were put into action.
5. The students will share their writing prompt responses.
6. Compositional Skills: The teacher will introduce the importance of strong verbs and define them as verbs with muscles. Example: Weak – The lights shine off and on in the distance as the little boat moves from side to side in the water.Strong – The lights glimmer in the distance as the little boat drifts in the water.
7. Guided Practice A: The students will be provided six sentences to examine and rewrite by replacing weak verbs with one of the six-strong verbs provided by the teacher.
8. Guided Practice B: The students will use a dictionary or a thesaurus to identify the definition of each of six pairs of strong verbs. Then they will write a sentence using each of the pairs of strong verbs in a sentence. When completed, the students will check their definitions and share their finished work with the class.
9. Independent Practice C: the students will be directed to choose at least five strong verbs from practice A or B. Write a brief narrative paragraph using the five-strong verbs. When completed, the students will share with the class.
10. Evaluation: Explain how a problem-solution journal helps to generate narrative stories and how using strong verbs creates more meaning than weaker verbs.

Day 3: Three Ways of Journaling – Partner Journal and Transitional Words. In this session, the students will use partner journals to
provide a nonjudgmental way to compare reactions to real-life events and events in literature.

Activities:

1. Model: The teacher demonstrates how to create a four-column partner journal page. The first column is labeled SITUATION. The second column is labeled MY NOTES. The third column is labeled MY PARTNER'S IDEAS. The fourth column is labeled MY REACTIONS TO MY PARTNER'S IDEAS.
2. Guided practice: The students will be directed to complete the SITUATION and the MY NOTES columns of a four-column partner journal page. After completing the SITUATION and MY NOTES columns, the students will share their work with a partner in the class and ask for them to record their comments in the PARTNER'S IDEAS column. When complete, each student will be directed to record their reactions in the MY REACTIONS TO MY PARTNER'S IDEAS.
3. Compositional skills: When students complete their partner journal activity, the teacher will introduce the importance of using transitional words in their writing to link related ideas, hold them together, and support logical order in reporting events.
4. Next, the teacher provides the students with samples of sentences using transitional words that connect related ideas like a chain connected at links.
5. After examining samples of transitional words connecting related ideas, the teacher provides a sentence that uses transition words that are related to thoughts. The sentence example is, "The snake raised its head because it was afraid even though I was backing away.
6. After sharing the snake sentence, the students are directed to continue the snake story. They will be directed to write one or more paragraphs using ‘six’ different transitional phrases. Samples of transitional words for the students to choose from will be provided.
7. Evaluations: How does a partner journal help to write a narrative and how do transition words or phrases help to bring clarity to our writing?

Who should take this live class?

Target Audience: Ages 9 - 13/Upper elementary ages- middle school ages.