Writing Journals

I have a class of reluctant writers, so one of my challenges is to encourage regular writing, and also to convince them that writing can be fun and interesting. Enter the Writing Journal.

Actually, I am encouraging a combination Writing/Creative Journal.  My students were instructed to use a bound Composition book such as this for their journal.

 

First each person had to choose a theme for his/her journal. A couple of the boys are doing Sports, one chose Music, another Cartoons.  The assignment is to make 4 entries that somehow relate to the theme each week, and every Monday we'll pass them around so the rest of the class can take a look and see what you have done.  Each entry, which should begin on a new page, must include at least 3 complete sentences, at least one design element (drawing, printed picture, graphic, chart, map, border, or other design ) and the date. 

For inspiration: