5 ways to make journals come alive!

By Keriann O'Rourke

Visible thinking

The Harvard Graduate School of Education's Visible Thinking project is exactly that - exploring reflection, critical thinking, organising ideas, new perspectives in a visible way. And there's so many other topics to explore! To really make thinking visible educators need to model the routines in their lessons first before students would be able to apply anything independently. But the strategies are effective, easy to execute and FUN for students of all learning styles.

Bonus! These routines can be used across subjects and age groups making connections across student's learning. Read more about visible thinking

Make it quick!

Who said journal responses always have to be epic?

Sometimes a quick bullet list, drawing and caption, questions of the day, or headline can be enough to capture the experience and give students enough to go back to the following day. Some students find writing lengthy journals daunting and are more open to quick captures when possible. Prep in advance your favourite go-to quick journal tasks for those days when it feels like a chore. This article itself is an example of just how effective simplified communication can be.

Check out Bullet Journals or Western Academy of Beijing's awesome Sketchnote resource for creative notetaking ideas for both students AND adults!

Improve the design

Learning to design effectively can improve your ability to communicate. Think of a journal like a stage - in order to get your message effectively across to your audience you need to consider placement, colour, layers and levels. Similar rules can be applied to journals! Applying the elements of design can help develop any website, slideshow, blog or handwritten notebook into a polished piece and become a place of pride for students to showcase their work.

I HIGHLY recommend Keri-Lee Beasley's student-friendly e-book Design Secrets Revealed for a quick and easy look at applying design elements.

Practice what you preach

Ok, so you want your students' journals to be these amazing vessels of learning. Opening them should make you gush and be groundbreakingly inspirational spaces for students. But have you done a stocktake of your own practice you are modelling for them? Do your own communication tools (presentations, activity sheets etc.) reflect what you hope your students will create? If they don't match up it's time to refresh those weary docs and demonstrate exactly what you expect your students to achieve.

Canva is a great design website that makes creating presentations, posters (and pretty much anything you can think of) easy and professionally polished.

Photos & videos are fab

There's no more authentic way to express ourselves than through photos and videos - just think of how effective a quick video call is vs. a long email. Take reflection to the next level using digital tools to further develop feedback and reflection.

• Use video tools like Loom or Screencastify to respond to work in real-time

• Share feedback through video responses as a class using Flipgrid

• Find a partner teacher/school doing the same task as your class for a peer review

Talk to your Tech Team at your school. See what digital tools other subject areas are using and steal their ideas and give them your own theatrical spin.