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Start by having students share previous day’s journal entries.
- Students should have blue, orange, and red crayons out during their sharing. (Any colors are possible as long as every student has the same three colors.)
- After student shares, teacher points out which sentence should be underlined in the first color (e.g. blue). For example, if a student wrote “I had a great time at my grandma’s house. We played football outside. The girls won.” If the idea needs to be elaborated, point out that the students should underline the sentence in blue. (We played football outside.)
- Teacher then points out two more areas that require elaboration. For example, if the student then continued “Then we went inside to eat dinner. I love my granny’s potatoes.” If the idea needs to be elaborated, point out that the students should underline the sentence in orange. (…we went inside to eat dinner.)
- The same concept continues for one more color.
- You will not have time to hear everyone’s writing, so simply underline the remaining students’ journals at a separate time.
- On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, place the journals in a literacy center or assign the following activity as homework.
- When students write in their journal on Wednesday, they should copy the blue underlined sentence (or 1st color). For example: (We played football outside.) Their assignment for today is to elaborate about the game.
- On Thursday, students should copy and elaborate the orange (or 2nd color) sentence from their 1st journal entry. For example: (…we went inside to eat dinner.) Their assignment for today is to elaborate about the meal they ate at dinner.
- On Friday, students will copy the third color sentence and elaborate it.
- If any student did not write enough to have three ideas to elaborate, wait and read their next day’s journal elaboration to underline a second or third sentence.
- Since students are not writing a great deal during the first few weeks of instruction, this journal writing activity should continue be conducted at least during the following five weeks.
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