Monday, March 1, 2010

Journaling with Graphic Organizers

Recently my child, a high school freshman, completed an assignment that required him to write ten journal entries and include ten illustrations; one with each entry. The entries would include subjects as broad as describing yourself, discussing the music that best represents you and writing a poem or a song on a given subject.

A bit overwhelmed by what he considered a mammoth task, he determined that to organize the process would be number one. In order to work from school and from home, he chose to use his portable usb storage device to store his documents.
Steps to begin the project:
1. Create a Journal folder on his portable usb drive
2. Name each document in a manner that is consistent
3. Edit and re-edit the document as needed using the usb portable storage.

If only this were enough to have a completed project. Then there was “writers block”. Figuring out how to bring thoughts and ideas together became a bit of a challenge. Now what? Using graphical organizers would be the next essential step in completing this task. A few links to graphical organizers include the following:

http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/
http://www.teachervision.fen.com/graphic-organizers/printable/6293.html
http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/graphic-organizers.html
http://www.writedesignonline.com/organizers/

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