A dialogue journal is an efficient tool for developing your learner's writing skills. However, there are other advantages of dialogue journals such as your learner's involvement in authentic communication with you, the expression of thoughts with ease and in a relaxed way, the provision of a unique feedback about learners' writing, and an opportunity to accumulate thoughts, ideas, and writing achievements.
In previous post Dialogue Journals are not just a Tool for Communication, but an Effective Way of Teaching Writing I talked about the dialogue journal as an efficient tool for developing your learner's writing skills. However, there are some other advantages of the dialogue journal which make it a valuable teaching tool in comparison with other types of writing such as essays, reports, stories, letters, and reviews.
First of all, the dialogue journal provides an opportunity for authentic communication between you and your learner. This is the place where your learner does not need to be afraid to share thoughts, ideas, and will always get positive feedback and support from you. In this way your learner perceives the writing as a positive experience which encourages them to write more and more, and maybe carry the desire to write through all his life.
Writing is still a favorite activity for me. I am grateful to my Russian language and literature teacher Rimma Habbibulovna, who encouraged us to write reading response journals which were similar to dialog journals.
The only difference between reading response journal and dialogue journal is that we provided a summary about the book we read, and our impressions from reading it, in a reading response journal.
There were three columns in the journal: one for a plot summary, one for our personal reflections, and one for teacher reflections. Rimma Habbibulovna (in Russia we always use a woman's first and middle name (acutally her father's first name, with "ovna" to indicated it was adapted for his daughter when we address them)) always wrote her response in the last column.
I looked forward to reading her responses. She always accepted my points of view, even though sometimes she had a different opinion. Rimma Habibulovna was very tolerant of my scribbles, in spite of my many mistakes with grammar and punctuation.
I had never saw red pencil or pen corrections in my journal when I got it back. Not feeling chastised by the red pen allowed me to take future risks while expressing my thoughts and ideas in writing without concern for writing mechanics. However, in her feedback Rimma Habibbulovna always provided the right corrections, which served as a model of for me to correct my future responses.
One of the first stories I wrote about in my reading response journal was Leo Tolstoy's short story The Prisoner of the Mountains, later made into the Russian film Prisoner of Caucasus (and set in Chechnya) when I was ten years old:
I was so impressed by the main character of that story, whose last name was Jilin, that it did not take me too long to write a short summary of the story. In that story two friends, Jilin and Kostilin, are taken prisoner by Tartars in Caucasus. They have an opportunity to escape imprisonment by paying a certain sum of money to the Tartars.
Kostilin wrote immediately to his parents asking for money. Jilin decided to find the way out himself, as his mom was sick, and he did not want to cause her additional troubles. As a result, he made an attempt to escape, went through many obstacles, and finally returned home safely.
In my reflections I showed admiration towards Jilin, and dislike towards Kostilin. I wrote about the lessons I learned while reading that book. I realized that I should always try to find the way out before asking someone's help. I expressed my desire to follow Jilin's example.
As always, I was nervous to get my teacher's feedback, as I had grown quite accustomed to getting my essays back covered with red pen corrections.
This time, everything was different. I was surprised, not finding red pen signs on my paper, but instead a long response from my teacher in the last column. There she wrote that she admired Jilin too: his bravery and his ambitiousness. She praised my choice of Jilin rather than Kostilin as my role model . Rimma Habibbulovna advised me to read other stories with the similar idea written by Leo Tolstoy. It took me half a year to complete the whole journal, and I started a new one. I indulged in writing activity. I still keep my reading -response journals which give me lots of happy emotions. They always remind me of my unsophisticated, a little naive, but unique writing experience.
It will be important for your learner to lead and write in dialogue journals too, where your learner can accumulate thoughts, ideas, and experiences. Tutoring sessions, aside from teaching, also represent a certain period in your learner's life. It is a positive experience for most learners which they won't forget thanks to keeping and reading the accumulated reflections in a dialogue journal with you, their tutor.
What is more, the dialogue journal accumulates not only your learner's experience but his writing progress. If your learner fails to improve certain skills after corrective feedback from you on the facing page of the journal, you can always refer your learner back to previous writings, and point to the corrections which had been discussed before. In this way you keep your learner accountable for what you've taught, and encourage them to avoid making the same mistakes.
Dialogue journals are not only a place to teach writing; they also represent a place for genuine written dialogue between you and your learner, a place where your learner can talk and share their thoughts, experiences and impressions. Dialogue journals also create a unique receptacle which preserve your learners' past thoughts, ideas, experiences and writing progress -and, of course, the developing relationship with their new friend, their writing tutor.
ENGLISH AT LARGE
Literacy and Learning for Life
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In previous post Dialogue Journals are not just a Tool for Communication, but an Effective Way of Teaching Writing I talked about the dialogue journal as an efficient tool for developing your learner's writing skills. However, there are some other advantages of the dialogue journal which make it a valuable teaching tool in comparison with other types of writing such as essays, reports, stories, letters, and reviews.
First of all, the dialogue journal provides an opportunity for authentic communication between you and your learner. This is the place where your learner does not need to be afraid to share thoughts, ideas, and will always get positive feedback and support from you. In this way your learner perceives the writing as a positive experience which encourages them to write more and more, and maybe carry the desire to write through all his life.
Writing is still a favorite activity for me. I am grateful to my Russian language and literature teacher Rimma Habbibulovna, who encouraged us to write reading response journals which were similar to dialog journals.
Rimma Habibbulovna, my Russian language and literature teacher
When Rimma Habbibulovna introduced me to a dialogue journal, I was nine or ten years old - an early age at which learners begin to enjoy writing and the chance to have a dialogue with their teacher on paper.
The only difference between reading response journal and dialogue journal is that we provided a summary about the book we read, and our impressions from reading it, in a reading response journal.
There were three columns in the journal: one for a plot summary, one for our personal reflections, and one for teacher reflections. Rimma Habbibulovna (in Russia we always use a woman's first and middle name (acutally her father's first name, with "ovna" to indicated it was adapted for his daughter when we address them)) always wrote her response in the last column.
I looked forward to reading her responses. She always accepted my points of view, even though sometimes she had a different opinion. Rimma Habibulovna was very tolerant of my scribbles, in spite of my many mistakes with grammar and punctuation.
I had never saw red pencil or pen corrections in my journal when I got it back. Not feeling chastised by the red pen allowed me to take future risks while expressing my thoughts and ideas in writing without concern for writing mechanics. However, in her feedback Rimma Habibbulovna always provided the right corrections, which served as a model of for me to correct my future responses.
One of the first stories I wrote about in my reading response journal was Leo Tolstoy's short story The Prisoner of the Mountains, later made into the Russian film Prisoner of Caucasus (and set in Chechnya) when I was ten years old:
.,
I was so impressed by the main character of that story, whose last name was Jilin, that it did not take me too long to write a short summary of the story. In that story two friends, Jilin and Kostilin, are taken prisoner by Tartars in Caucasus. They have an opportunity to escape imprisonment by paying a certain sum of money to the Tartars.
Kostilin wrote immediately to his parents asking for money. Jilin decided to find the way out himself, as his mom was sick, and he did not want to cause her additional troubles. As a result, he made an attempt to escape, went through many obstacles, and finally returned home safely.
In my reflections I showed admiration towards Jilin, and dislike towards Kostilin. I wrote about the lessons I learned while reading that book. I realized that I should always try to find the way out before asking someone's help. I expressed my desire to follow Jilin's example.
As always, I was nervous to get my teacher's feedback, as I had grown quite accustomed to getting my essays back covered with red pen corrections.
This time, everything was different. I was surprised, not finding red pen signs on my paper, but instead a long response from my teacher in the last column. There she wrote that she admired Jilin too: his bravery and his ambitiousness. She praised my choice of Jilin rather than Kostilin as my role model . Rimma Habibbulovna advised me to read other stories with the similar idea written by Leo Tolstoy. It took me half a year to complete the whole journal, and I started a new one. I indulged in writing activity. I still keep my reading -response journals which give me lots of happy emotions. They always remind me of my unsophisticated, a little naive, but unique writing experience.
It will be important for your learner to lead and write in dialogue journals too, where your learner can accumulate thoughts, ideas, and experiences. Tutoring sessions, aside from teaching, also represent a certain period in your learner's life. It is a positive experience for most learners which they won't forget thanks to keeping and reading the accumulated reflections in a dialogue journal with you, their tutor.
What is more, the dialogue journal accumulates not only your learner's experience but his writing progress. If your learner fails to improve certain skills after corrective feedback from you on the facing page of the journal, you can always refer your learner back to previous writings, and point to the corrections which had been discussed before. In this way you keep your learner accountable for what you've taught, and encourage them to avoid making the same mistakes.
Dialogue journals are not only a place to teach writing; they also represent a place for genuine written dialogue between you and your learner, a place where your learner can talk and share their thoughts, experiences and impressions. Dialogue journals also create a unique receptacle which preserve your learners' past thoughts, ideas, experiences and writing progress -and, of course, the developing relationship with their new friend, their writing tutor.
Happy tutoring!
Tatyana Pavlova
Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics/ Bashkir State University
MA Education/ESL 2014, Cambridge College
ENGLISH AT LARGE
Literacy and Learning for Life
Join the conversation
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