Dialogue Journals

A dialogue journal is an informal written conversation between two or more people (student-student and/or student-teacher) about an assigned topic, a reading assignment, lecture, task or experience. Each student then exchanges journals with a peer who reads and responds to the entry with comments and questions.

Dialogue journals provide students with a meaningful writing activity that is engaging because it involves other students. These written conversations reinforce learning while forming bonds between students that can provide a foundation for later cooperative learning activities.

• It teaches students to formulate and express opinions. It is an also an important way of individualising instruction and encouraging independent thinking.
• It offers a formal medium for students to record their thoughts, connect the topics to their personal lives, and ask each other questions.
• Incorporating guided conversation and discussion into the classroom helps students develop a deeper understanding of the topics and materials being taught.

1. On a fresh page in the journal, students draw a vertical line about one-third of the page from the right margin. The writer writes in the left; the responder writes in the right.
2. The writer comments or questions after reading an assignment, hearing a lecture, performing a task, engaging in an activity, or listening to a discussion, and dates and signs the entry.
3. The writer gives the journal to the responder, who reads the entries and responds with comments, suggestions, answers, questions, and so forth, also dating and signing the entry.
4. The instructor may read the journals to clarify points, answer questions, and comment on or evaluate.