✏️ What to Write Every Day (And How to Grade It) (2/3)
So your students now write every day. What do they write? How does grading work?
Teach Writing Tomorrow addresses major myths and misconceptions about teaching writing. It will move from attitudes to actions and mindset to methods, showing how any teacher, regardless of their own perceived ability or creativity, can teach writing tomorrow.
180 Days, 180 Prompts?
In Part 1, How to Write Every Day (Student Writing Notebooks), I described student writing notebooks as way to lower mental barriers to writing and to increase fluency. In Part 2, we will explore two simple questions: "What do you write about?" and "How do you grade it?"
From a complexity standpoint, truly writing every day means 180 graded prompts, which sounds daunting for many teachers. Luckily, neither should cause concern.
Let’s clear the air: Do students in my class really write 180 journals per year? No. But, speaking purely back of the envelope, four journals per week for thirty-six weeks means 144 journals. Factoring interruptions, some weeks have three journals while others have five. The actual number varies.
So what do students write about? I use two main prompts and four others. The first two complement literature while the others create variety and fill gaps between major topics. (Part 3 deals with the logistics of getting started, including 50+ prompts.) Here’s a quick overview:
Retrieval practice boosts learning through purposeful recall. Starting to forget is fine, if not ideal. Let students struggle to remember before rereading. Cognitive science says rereading isn’t as efficient as you think!
Anticipation connects students to literature through reflecting on general themes. You’d be surprised: Buy-in often comes through students talking about their own lives first.
Creative writing seems self-evident enough: Ask unrelated questions to practice divergent thinking.
Open topics rely on solid routines and work pure fluency. Students write with the only restraints that they write the entire time and avoid inappropriate topics. Otherwise they select their topics and can switch as many times as they want.
Repeating prompts offer timely yet relevant breaks from literature. This includes everything from grade checks to narrating learning and expressing gratitude.
Distributed questioning chunks future prompts into bite-sized, daily questions. Thus, journals become exploration for future writing, freed from other constraints. (Have I mentioned how much I despite brainstorm, outline, write, revise as "the" writing process?)
Two Main Prompts
The integrated classroom blends reading, writing, speaking, and listening with this maxim: Students must discuss what they write about literature. Daily writing becomes a built-in space for discussions, even if they don’t actually happen. As every student writes about the reading, every student engages with the reading. When every student writes, every student participates.
When we ground writing in speaking, journals became planned discussions. (I will reflect more on this in future posts, the working title "Ground Writing in Speaking.") Consider these quick progressions:
journal > partner talk > class discussion
journal > class discussion > partner talk
journal > reading > class discussion
journal > reading > partner talk > class discussion
In Part One I described two main topics: retrieval practice and anticipation. Since these topics complement the main topics, writing the questions becomes habit.
Which do I use more? Retrieval practice or anticipation? I’d guess something like 70-30 or 60-40 for anticipation. While retrieval practice depends on attendance, anticipation channels life experience into engagement—and relevancy.
1. Retrieval Practice. Retrieval practice (or the testing effect) refers to purposeful recall which strengthens learning. There’s a difference between saying “Here’s what we read yesterday” and asking “What did we read yesterday?”. Struggling to recall before rereading helps consolidate learning. During longer texts, this purposeful recall helps build comprehension through strengthening memory.
Forgetting information is fine here. In fact, it helps. Beginning to forget then relearning actually strengthens retention. When paired with other strategies such as spacing and interleaving, we increase learning without extra effort.
Writing recall questions focuses details for that day’s class. When I write my journal prompts I consider a few basic questions.
What did students read yesterday?
What big picture details are vital for today’s reading?
What forgotten details might be relevant today?
2. Anticipation. Previewing major themes helps shift mindsets towards the day’s reading. This doesn’t always mean making predictions or asking hyper specific questions. Instead, connect relevant topics with student’s lives. Build anticipation through personal connections. Build a receptive audience.
Writing anticipation questions requires reflecting on major themes and connecting to your students daily lives. Since you’ve never met my students and I’ve never met your students, I can’t assume complete knowledge here. General themes emerge, of course, but knowing your students helps write the questions.
Journal Progression: “Flowers for Algernon”
Alternating between these two topics builds its own ebbs and flows. Here’s a progression from “Flowers for Algernon,” which typically takes four days to read:
Day 1 (3/5 to 3/28): If you could be the best at anything, what would it be and why? What if it came at a price? [Anticipation]
Day 2 (3/28 to 5/15): Why did Charlie get the surgery? What will happen to him? [Recall]
Day 3 (5/15 to 7/28): What are your reactions to “Algernon” so far? What resonates with you? [Recall]
Day 4 (Conclusion): What is something you’re no longer good at? [Anticipation]
Notice how these prompts alternate? Year to year they may shift with calendars or interruptions. But as extensions of conversations, writing them becomes second nature.
And Four Others
However, students don’t write about literature every day. Can you say redundant redundant? Variety prevents boredom. Sometimes students need a break during a book. Other times natural gaps arise between major topics. Regardless, use your best judgment, know your students, and vary accordingly.
This section will explore four other prompts: creative writing, open topics, repeating prompts, and distributed questioning.
3. Creative Writing. Creative writing provides timely questions and sometimes needed breaks from regularly scheduled content. Write autobiographically. Write about holidays. Write about goofy things. You know, like asking how students would respond if their town was attacked by an adorable herd of happy rampaging puppies.
For more ideas, check out my post on 50 metaphorical writing prompts.
Warning! Variety maintains motion, but some administrators exude boring. Some rulebook pushers possess the creativity of doorknobs and praise VCR manuals over novels. If too many prompts disconnect for too long, daily writing gains the perception of (insert your vice). Use creative writing prompts for variety, but beware the microscope and bludgeon. If the number lovers walk around declaring “I am the law!”, find fault in yourself and plan prompts defensively.
4. Open Topics. Once routine settles (Wait a month!) and students write quietly without distracting each other, challenge this routine through open topic responses. Open topics encourage longer responses through longer time limits. When they work, they work well. But psychology is always at play, and if students are restless, these journals take some extra classroom management.
How do they work? I’ll provide my writing prompt along with an expanded script.
The Prompt
Journal. Open Topic. Write about any school appropriate topic. Switch topics as many times as you want, but you must write the entire time. (8 min.)
As a Script
“Today you will write about anything. You can switch topics as many times as you want, but keep it school appropriate and must write the entire time.
“Write about sports, video games, or anything that’s on your mind. Just remember your English journal isn’t your personal diary.
“If you have trouble starting, say you have trouble starting. If you hate open topics, say you hate open topics. If you run out of ideas, narrate and describe what’s around you. Go stream of consciousness.
“Remember the goal is writing the entire time. If you close your journal after two minutes and look around, you’re not following directions. You end when the timer ends.
Aside: Open topics often channel ear worms. If a student starts a December open topic with “Last Christmas I gave you my heart,” be warned. Set your own policies about singing on the page. And no, doodling doesn’t work for open topics.
5. Repeating Prompts. I rotate and repeat many prompts each year. Many students immediately exclaim “But we’ve used this one!”, and that’s fine. Emphasize some questions change depending on the day. These prompts include everything from grade checks to gratitude. Here are some samples:
Journal. How was your weekend?
Journal. What do you want to accomplish this week?
Journal. My grade in English is a… I have ___ missing assignments. I need to…
Journal. Write about someone or something you’re grateful for.
Journal. Describe something you learned this week academically.
6. Distributed Questioning. Preview upcoming tasks by chunking the question weeks out. Let students explore and build a word count. Save time by using built-in time. When they start the task later, exploratory writing will give them a word count boost.
Example: My students write a reflection letter the last week of each grading period. Some years I’ll chunk the prompt the week before. I’ll show the prompt with the journal versions:
Reflection Letter Prompt
Write a one page reflection letter about this semester. Start by characterizing this semester and narrating your grades. Then focus on either describing what you’ve learned or your least favorite assignments. Conclude by describing goals for next semester and how you will get there.
As Journals:
Day 1: How would you describe this nine weeks in one word? Give that word, then explain it.
Day 2: List five things you’ve learned this semester.
Day 3: What was your most favorite assignment or reading this semester and why?
Day 4: What was your least favorite assignment or reading this semester and why?
(Day 5: List three goals for next semester and explain how you will get there.)
On Experimentation.
If students filled one page per week, this might account for thirty-six pages of a seventy page notebook. Of course, many entries will be longer than four sentences, so let’s say students use forty-five continuous pages. This leaves more blank space to explore. What other ways can you use writing notebooks?
Lately I’ve used blank pages for explicit Tier 2 vocabulary instruction. These mini-lessons have proven helpful, addressing either text-specific vocabulary or general academic vocabulary.
Adding Numbers to Letters (Grading)
Of course, if writing so many questions feels daunting, attaching numbers to letters feels more daunting. Grading creates an easy stumbling block for many. Consider the age old conundrum: Which is best: six bad sentences or three good sentences?
(My answer? How many sentences do the paragraphs have above or below? Not every medium expects so many sentences per paragraph!)
Building fluency means forgiving some mistakes. This doesn’t mean writing becomes a participation grade. Far from it! Instead, forgiving mistakes allows being firm elsewhere. Forgiving mistakes frees students to experiment and explore. Mistakes become conversations, followed by a personal calls to action. Better than red scribbles. It’s the difference between “Oh no!” and “Whoops!” Call it a selective pickiness.
And I’ll be honest here: I’m against marking every mistake with red pens. Not because it harms confidence or something weak like that. It’s just that if this strategy worked, red pens would’ve made better writers by now. Talking through mistakes fixes them faster than marking them alone. Marking every mistake becomes an ink blot for frazzled teachers—a cry for help.
This selective pickiness brings balance to grading. Journals offset other assignments. In practice this works because once students lose the fear of writing, they recognize mistakes happen. Once we’ve discussed mistakes, deductions become fair game. These approaches become complimentary.
Let’s explore grading.
Grading Policies (with Examples)
Grading centers on meaning over mechanics. Consider the sculpture: Before chiseling a block, the block must exist. In the same way, students must work from quantity to quality, not quality to quantity. (Why else do writers revise and polish?) If students meet a working quota, then they get points.
For middle school students, my daily quota is a small paragraph or four to five sentences. (If I had high school, I'd aim for two paragraphs or eight to ten sentences.) In an ideal world, they'd get something like one point per sentence, but not exactly. Grading holistically means if one entry falls short, another entry can bridge the point gap.
Grading journals isn't scientific. More accurate grading verbs include eyeballing, bartering, and back of the envelope calculations. If I expect a small paragraph each day—four to five sentences—ideally each sentence deserves a point. But I also consider each journal both alone and in context. Longer responses balance shorter responses.
A policy description, with example scoring, goes like this:
Scoring Description. Responses will be graded holistically each week, meaning that longer responses can balance out the occasional short response.
0 point: No response or off-topic response.
1 point: Single sentence response. Minimal detail. Little to no effort. Incorrect information.
2-3 points: Two to three sentence response. More detail needed. Partially correct information.
4-5 points: Four to five sentence response. Excellent detail. Fully correct information.
Example Responses. Question: How was your summer vacation?
1 point: It was boring.
2-3 points: It was boring. I stayed home and played video games.
4-5 points: My summer was boring. We didn't travel, but I played video games and hung out with friends. I beat Breath of the Wild for the tenth time!
How precise should your grading be? Consider your context. Districts with overly active parents require rigid rules and little leeway. Know your audience.
How do you handle those with extra academic needs? Individually. If students have an IEP or English isn’t their first language, grade them accordingly. If they can only muster two sentences, encourage them. Just don’t be a jerk.
When do journal deductions start? The second week. That week I emphasize the physical space and dating entries. Those responses which begin on random pages or lack the date then get deductions. Later on I deduct for not counting sentences. This fixes the issue quickly.
So we’ve talked about the points, but how do the logistics work? Let’s take a detour.
How NOT to Grade
I grade journals through weekly conferences. But that statement betrays the trial and error of getting there. Before solidifying policies, I discovered many ways not to grade journals. Grade how you want, but learn from my mistakes and make better ones.
1. Portfolio Style. I started daily writing on year one—with abstract ideals and no concrete procedures. Knowing nothing, I graded them portfolio style. Students wrote for weeks with no feedback and no grades.
Once I realized they needed grades, students selected their best entries and left their journals. Except I never stressed organizing entries, dating entries, or marking them for grading. Instead I found journals like an Easter egg hunt and divined what they wanted grading. It was a disaster!
Never grade journals portfolio style. Students deserve timely feedback. However, this failure taught many lessons: storing notebooks, organizing the page, and labeling entries.
2. Fetching Well Water. Fast forward: Years later journals stay in class and entries are marked. Yet I kept alternating between grading approaches:
After school grading meant lugging 100+ notebooks from my bookcase. Yet I graded with peace and quiet. The downside? Students asked if I read their journals. (Of course I did!)
Weekly conferences allowed real-time feedback but drained class time. However, the time investment allowed easy data entry after school. And students knew I read their journals.
After school grading proved disastrous for three reasons.
One, unless students brought notebooks to you, grading meant more searching and time lost.
Two, handling their notebooks felt gross. Too many germs.
Three, grading after school meant no time limits. Weekly conferences had brevity. I’d read them deeply—take an hour—yet students accused me of not reading them.
That year weekly conferences won. While building in class time took time, grading while students completed other tasks solved the problem.
3. Digital Journals. Every year students beg for digital journals. So when my son was born, I yielded. I could grade journals online while my son napped. Being second semester, they knew expectations. All would be fine. Except it wasn’t. Disaster ensued.
Journals require routine and classroom management. Parental leave disrupted both. Despite saying "Write five sentences," my best students began writing two or three. Grades entered free fall. Parents complained. And this doesn't even address the cheating. "What's your favorite meal?" Yeah, they'd google that.
Here’s the surprising part: Those students begged for digital journals. Then they hated them. After a semester writing by hand, they preferred it. That alone bears its own post. Cite any study on writing by hand versus typing and you’ll find slower works better for some tasks.
Aside: Never post journals online. Complete all journals live. Ten years ago I posted them online and a student wrote the entire week’s journals on Sunday. Poorly. Then she sat and disrupted her classmates. The next day, more students followed. When I pressed discipline, they retorted that I allowed it by posting online. It never happened again.
The Weekly Conference
Individual writing conferences don’t require much: Just a grading sheet and the space to stand side by side with students—while watching the others.
How do you manage students while grading? Check journals while they complete other tasks. Just be warned that the best groups can’t handle twenty plus teenagers actively off task, standing in a winding, snaking line through the classroom. Chaos. But if you love silence and order, call them one row at a time. I just wouldn’t recommend it.
When happens when you see mistakes? Circle them. You can’t circle every mistake for every entry for every student, so pick and choose. Circle common misspellings and write the correct spelling at the top of the page. Circle common capitalization and punctuation mistakes. Do what seems best. But that said, circle them, discuss them, and move on.
Weekly conferences hearken to The First Days of School. Routine wins. Set expectations and set routines, but don’t stray.
✍️ If you have questions on routine, please ask in the comment section!
^Individualized Teaching
As the year follows its natural course, daily writing creates a synergy first unseen and then strongly felt. As if by clockwork, the following dialogue happens as the calendar turns to May.
Student: (Rereads early journals.) Woah! I can’t believe what I wrote in August.
Teacher: Would you make those same mistakes now?
Student: Of course not!
Teacher: So you’ve learned something?
Student: Of course!
When students write their final reflection letter, I’m surprised each year when they state they’ve improved in spelling. How’s that? (I’m never satisfied with how I teach spelling.) They point to the circled words and lack of circled words. What I lack in whole-class teaching I compensate with individual explanations.
After ten plus years, that never ceases to amaze me.
Next Time
Whew! This post should have been two, but I wanted to keep this series moving. (Maybe someday it will become a single chapter?) The last post will become sheer logistics. It will explore the following questions:
1. How do I get started? Can I start mid-year? Do you have any scripts? Checklists?
2. You've mentioned several types of questions. Do you have any examples? Could I have at least... fifty?
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This is so helpful. Thanks for taking the time to document and share this.
I do the whole lugging notebooks home thing sometimes and it suuuuuucks. Must try your grading :)