Basic to the tenets of wholistic literacy instruction are the beliefs that reading and writing should be relevant to the learner, should serve real-life purposes and, consequently, should be meaningful (Goodman, 1986). Dialogue journals, described as written conversations between two or more people over an extended period of time (Staton, 1988), fit this description. Communication within a dialogue journal is in formal and focuses on topics of mutual interest. They provide an arena for young students that is risk-free and empowering as new readers and writers are encouraged to use their invented spelling and to learn about literacy in an integrative manner (Bode, 1989). Dialogue journals serve as bridges between spoken conversation and written expression and help students develop an awareness of the real purposes of reading and writing (Gambrell, 1985). In addition, these journals provide a forum for sharing ideas, developing literacy skills and enhancing participants abilities to interact on paper in a warm and human way

Lenski, Susan Davis

Wham, Mary Ann

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Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy andLanguage ArtsVolume 35Issue 1 September/October 1994 Article 510-1-1994Dialogue Journals as a Vehicle for PreserviceTeachers to Experience the Writing Process (I LikeHim; Should I Tell Him at Recess?)Mary Ann WhamUniversity of Wisconsin at WhitewaterSusan Davis LenskiIllinois State UniversityFollow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/reading_horizonsPart of the Education CommonsThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by the SpecialEducation and Literacy Studies at ScholarWorks at WMU. It has beenaccepted for inclusion in Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy andLanguage Arts by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks at WMU. For moreinformation, please contact maira.bundza@wmich.edu.Recommended CitationWham, M. A., & Lenski, S. D. (1994). Dialogue Journals as a Vehicle for Preservice Teachers to Experience the Writing Process (I LikeHim; Should I Tell Him at Recess?). Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts, 35 (1). Retrieved fromhttps://scholarworks.wmich.edu/reading_horizons/vol35/iss1/5^Dialogue Journals as aVehicle for PreserviceTeachers to Experiencethe Writing Process (I LikeHim; Should I TellHim at Recess?)Mary Ann WhamSusan Davis LenskiBasic to the tenets of wholistic literacy instruction are thebeliefs that reading and writing should be relevant to thelearner, should serve real-life purposes and, consequently,should be meaningful (Goodman, 1986). Dialogue journals,described as written conversations between two or more people over an extended period of time (Staton, 1988), fit this description. Communication within a dialogue journal is informal and focuses on topics of mutual interest. They provide an arena for young students that is risk-free and empowering as new readers and writers are encouraged to use theirinvented spelling and to learn about literacy in an integrativemanner (Bode, 1989). Dialogue journals serve as bridges between spoken conversation and written expression and helpstudents develop an awareness of the real purposes of readingand writing (Gambrell, 1985). In addition, these journals provide a forum for sharing ideas, developing literacy skills andREADING HORIZONS, 1994, volume 35, #1 63enhancing participants* abilities to interact on paper in awarm and human way.Traditionally, dialogue journals have been used within aclassroom for correspondence between teachers and studentsor between two students. As an instructor of two languagearts classes composed of elementary education majors, I decided to combine the concept of dialogue journals with thetraditional activity of letter writing between pen pals. Duringthe first week of the semester, the students in my classes wereintroduced to the dialogue journal project. My thought wasthat this project would serve several purposes. First of all, despite more than a decade of emphasis on the writing process,many of my elementary education students received theirearly education in traditional classrooms where a focus onwritten products was the accepted norm. They had beentaught to read and write by traditional methods and consequently regarded these methods as the appropriate way toteach. A part of their schooling experience had been the development of the mindset that a good teacher corrected allspelling and grammatical errors made by pupils. Many of thelanguage arts students believed it to be the teacher's responsibility to teach students to produce compositions that are errorfree (Crowhurst, 1991). Consequently, few future teachers areinitially able to look beyond their pupils' errors to the meanings that the youngsters are attempting to convey.Although we had talked at length about process writingwithin the language arts classes, this project seemed likely tomake process writing come to life by supporting the approachin a variety of ways. Students would assume ownership overtheir writing rather than just writing to complete a classassignment. Students would be writing for a genuineaudience, their elementary pen-friends. They would alsoexperience peer editing when they read each others' journal64 READING HORIZONS, 1994, volume 35, #1entries prior to sending them to the elementary schoolparticipants. In addition, these future teachers who werelearning about literacy would have the opportunity tointegrate and apply their knowledge through reflecting,analyzing and responding to the written work of realelementary children.For the elementary students, the journal project wouldalso provide valuable educational opportunities. They, toowould experience sharing their thoughts with another personand would be encouraged to grow in their abilities to communicate effectively through writing. In addition, the journal would provide a risk-free environment where they couldpractice their emerging literacy skills and experiment withwriting for an appreciative audience.SubjectsEighty-seven elementary students who were residents ofa small midwestern community participated in the project inconjunction with the members of two language arts methodsclasses at a local university. All of the elementary students attended an elementary school where the overall teaching atmosphere can best be described as traditional. A few of theteachers in the school, however, were beginning to move inthe direction of wholistic instruction and those who werecontacted for the project were eager to experience an aspect ofprocess writing.ImplementationDuring the first week of the semester, the students in mylanguage arts classes were introduced to the pen-friend project. They were asked to bring a bound composition book toclass to use for corresponding with an elementary student.Every language arts student was randomly paired for correspondence with at least one first or second grader. The namesREADING HORIZONS, 1994, volume 35, #1 65of the elementary student and the university student partnerswere placed on the fronts of the journals. The university students initiated the first journal correspondence by writing anintroductory letter in which they introduced themselves anddescribed the project. They also included questions such as Doyou like school? and What is your favorite book? in order toprovide some structure for the first responses from theirelementary pen pals. The journals were delivered to theelementary school and the project was underway.Between twelve and fifteen pen-friend correspondenceswere exchanged weekly throughout the semester. The language arts students eagerly awaited the weekly journal entriesfrom their elementary counterparts and enjoyed sharingmany of their journal letters with their classmates.During the course of the semester, the future teachersused the journals to explore various developmental aspects ofliteracy which were apparent in the writings produced by theiryoung friends. One focus of investigation was the varieties ofinvented spellings that the children produced. On several occasions in the language arts classes, we put large sheets ofbutcher block paper around the room and listed examples ofthe various stages of spelling development that we were ableto identify in the journal entries. As the months went by, theclass noticed that many of the first grade children appeared tobe moving from a phonetic stage of spelling construction toward the transitional stage (Gentry, 1981), and several of thesecond graders were beginning to use the conventionalspellings of words.The future teachers were also able to note differences inthe quality of the journal entries produced by the children. Asthey wrote weekly in their journals, the children's sentencesbecame longer and their paragraph formations gradually66 READING HORIZONS, 1994, volume 35, #1improved. The language arts students were careful to avoidstilted, unnatural writing when they made a journal entryand frequently were able to provide models of conventionalspelling and sentence formation for their young correspondents. During the 15 to 20 minutes spent writing in the journals in the language arts classes, it was not uncommon tooverhear such questions as How do you spell armadillo? orRead this. Is this a complete sentence? as these students alsoexperienced the peer-editing phase of the writing process.On several occasions I interrupted the interactions of mylanguage arts students in order to draw their attention to whatthey were encountering. I urged them to place the importance and the pleasure of this activity into their "teachermemory banks" so that they would be able to provide a similar atmosphere in their future classrooms.As the weeks went by the journal entries moved fromsafe, generic subjects such as hobbies, favorite televisionshows and physical descriptions to more personal topics,some of which were emotional in nature. The uninhibitedwriting of the first and second graders provided our class witha great deal of enjoyment. The students also learned a lotfrom their young friends about the changing family structurethat many of the children were experiencing. There werefrequent descriptions of non-traditional families that includedweekend excursions to visit fathers and step-mothers ordescriptions of outings that included "Mom's boyfriend" or"Dad's girlfriend." Sometimes the death of a pet was sharedand on occasion, very personal questions were asked by ouryoung correspondents. One first grader asked in her journal ifher university pen-friend had a bank account and another,whose mother was expecting a baby, asked my student if she,too, were pregnant. Of course, the usual advice to the lovelorn was a subject of many exchanges. Six and seven year-oldsREADING HORIZONS, 1994, volume 35, #1 67seemed well versed in the perils of mate selection and oftensought advice from their older, more experienced pen-friends."I like him. Should I tell him at recess?" was not anuncommon inquiry.Figure 1Responses (in percentages) to a questionnaire on writing enjoymentStronglyagreeStronglydisagree1 2 3 4 572 24 1 1 04 29 29 23 1326 48 19 4 133 35 12 12 6I enjoyed the journal writing activity.I had trouble knowing what to write about.I thought about the mechanics of writing as Iwrote in the journal.I went back to revise/edit entries after writing.I answered the questions my pen-friend askedin the journal.I wrote about things that I thought would interest my pen-friend.I wrote about things that happened in my everyday life.I think this is a valuable activity for a languagearts class.This project helped me see the value of journalwriting for elementary students.I noticed some changes in my pen-friend's writing as the semester progressed (e.g., improvedpenmanship, longer entries, more questions). 179074 2153 33 1084 1372 2430 38The project was completed in early May and the conclusion was celebrated by a get-together in the campus diningroom. Conveniently, the participating elementary students68 READING HORIZONS, 1994, volume 35, #1attended a school only a few blocks from the university. Onesunny May morning, 87 first and second graders and theirteachers and aides arrived to meet their somewhat nervousuniversity counterparts. After initial introductions werecompleted, fruit juice and cookies were served and thejournals were presented to the elementary students as mementos of their pen-friend experience.Figure 2Responses (in percentages) to a questionnaire onjounal enjoymentI enjoyed the journal pen-friend activity.I looked forward to reading my journal.I liked writing in my journal.My pen-friend wrote interesting letters.I liked meeting my pen-friend.I would like to do this again next year.Grade 1 Grade 2Yes No Yes No100 0 97 3100 0 97 3100 0 88 12100 0 99 1100 0 100 0100 0 97 3ResultsIn an effort to evaluate the journal writing project, questionnaires were distributed to all of the participants. Thequestionnaires evaluated the project from a variety of standpoints as I was eager to determine if the expended effort waseducationally worthwhile for future teachers and early readers and writers. Results of the questionnaires were very gratifying and support repeating the project in future semesters.READING HORIZONS, 1994, volume 35, #1 69All 68 language arts students involved in the projectwere asked to evaluate it based on 10 statements to which theyresponded on a Likert scale from (1) strongly agree to (5)strongly disagree. The questionnaire and the percentage of responses to each statement was included in Figure 1. Ninety-six percent of the respondents enjoyed the journal project and97 percent considered it a valuable activity for a language artsclass. Thirty-three percent of the students however, indicatedthat they occasionally had trouble knowing what to writeabout, but an overwhelming 96 percent of the future teachersindicated that the project helped them see the value ofjournal writing for their future elementary students. Almostnone of the undegraduates expressed any seriousdissatisfactions.The first and second grade journalers were also asked toevaluate the journal experience. A copy of their evaluationform and the percentages of their responses are included inFigure 2. It was interesting for the researchers to note that thefirst graders overwhelmingly enjoyed all aspects of the projectwhile the second graders were a little more reserved. Becausewe wonder about their less enthusiastic responses, when werepeat the activity we plan to evaluate it with a combinationof questionnaires and personal interviews.ConclusionThe classroom teachers who collaborated with us askedthat we repeat the project soon. They thought that theirstudents were personally invested in their journals and hadexperienced in an unthreatening way the natural relationshipbetween reading and writing.The use of dialogue journals helps both future teachersand emerging readers and writers to develop their literacyskills. Through the dialogue journal experience, prospective70 READING HORIZONS, 1994, volume 35, #1teachers are provided the opportunity to engage in writing ina purposeful context where they are able to examine theliteracy skills and interests of their future students. For theelementary students, dialogue journals illustrated the national relationship between reading and writing with a focuson meaningful communication rather than only on mechanical correctness.ReferencesBode, B. (1989). Dialogue journal writing. The Reading Teacher, 43, 568-571.Crowhurst, M. (1991). Two-way learning in correspondence between pen-friend pairs. English Education, 212-224.Gambrell, L. (1985). Dialogue journals: Reading-writing interactions. TheReading Teacher, 39, 512-515.Gentry, J.R. (1981). Learning to spell developmentally. The ReadingTeacher, 34, 378-381.Goodman, K. (1986). VJhat's whole in whole language? Portsmouth NH:Heinemann.Staton, J. (1988). Writing and counseling: Using a dialogue journal.Language Arts, 57, 514-518.Mary Ann Wham is a faculty member in theDepartment of Curriculum and Instruction at the Universityof Wisconsin at Whitewater, in Whitewater Wisconsin.Susan Davis Lenski is a faculty member in the Department ofCurriculum and Instruction, at the Illinois State University,in Normal Illinois.

Dialogue Journals as a Vehicle for Preservice Teachers to Experience the Writing Process (I Like Him; Should I Tell Him at Recess?)

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Dialogue Journals as a Vehicle for Preservice Teachers to Experience the Writing Process (I Like Him; Should I Tell Him at Recess?)

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