Dialogue Journals: Building Teacher-Student Relationships and Fostering Writing Growth

1
Dialogue JournalsBuilding Teacher-Student
Relationships and Fostering Writing Growth

• Conducted by Jessica Farthing
• and Dawn Skidmore

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Participants

• Jessicas students two 9th-grade academic
  (at-risk) classes.
• Dawns students three 10th-grade advanced
  (passed English SOL) classes.

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Procedure

• Journals of personal letters were scheduled to be
  exchanged between student-teaching interns and
  students on a weekly basis.
• Student-teaching interns would model correct
  usage within their responses.
• Journals to be monitored for improvement in
  fluidity and other mechanics.

4
Expectations

• Initial evaluation of formal student writing
  revealed poor writing skills. We anticipated
  that consistent writing and positive modeling
  would improve student fluency.
• We planned for the journals to be exchanged
  weekly, with student interns replying over
  weekends and students responding during the week.

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Setbacks and Limitations

• Difficulty in getting students to complete the
  journals at all.
• Teacher Interns only present two days a week.
• Teacher Interns not directly responsible for
  grades.
• Hands-off attitude from cooperating teachers.

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Process

• Student writing in the journals was much better
  than the formal writing samples we had seen.
• Jessica continued with the project as planned
  with her low-level students.
• Dawn switched to assigning creative writing
  pieces with her advanced 10th graders.

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Jessicas Results

• Little to no improvement in writing from the
  first week to the last.
• Some improvement in fluency of writing. None
  noted in grammar or mechanics.
• Higher quality of writing than other class work.
• Subject matter they enjoyed (themselves).
• No pressure not graded on mechanics.

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Dawns Results

• First creative assignment flopped completely.
• Open-ended, non-structured.
• Switched to a more structured creative assignment
  in Where Im From poems. This went really
  well.
• But I couldnt measure improvement because it was
  the only assignment theyd completed of this
  nature.

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Shared Results

• Although the writing skills growth was
  inconclusive, we developed strong relationships
  with the students. We believe that this rapport
  made the project worthwhile regardless of the
  students growth as writers. By laying this
  foundation of trust and respect, we became more
  able to work effectively with the students.

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Demonstrations of Rapport

• Students approached us more often with questions
  once theyd begun the journals.
• Students confided to us about deaths, divorces,
  and family illnesses that were causing stress.
• Students wrote that they liked having a teacher
  ask about their lives.

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Future Applications

• We are likely to use a modified version of this
  assignment in the future with our classes.
• We still believe that dialogue journals could
  improve student writing over a longer period of
  time.

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Future Applications

• The introductory letters and Where Im From
  poems could be used within or without the context
  of dialogue journals to achieve teacher-student
  rapport.

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Future Applications

• Dialogue journals could be exchanged every other
  week, allowing the teacher more turnaround time.
• Journals could be exchanged via email.
• Integrating technology.
• Allows teacher to type instead of handwrite
  personalized responses without losing the feeling
  of personal response.

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In Conclusion

• Our results were different than we expected, but
  we still feel that the project was successful.
  Although the dialogue journals did not have the
  desired effect on students writing, they
  enhanced our relationships with the students in
  ways we hadnt even imagined initially.