I have to post to say that I also viewed my first graders journal work as a bunch of misspelled words on a page that I can hardly read but after my teacher conference last night I view it a lot differently.
She pointed out to me how great her writing was (once you deciphered it)....example; the teacher read a story in the morning and my DD independently without a prompt made up a story of her own that mirrored the technique that the morning story used (can't remember the term but the author told a story, provided an opinion about it and ended by asking the reader a question). She also uses a lot of descriptive words and longer sentences ("I like red apples better than green and yellow." vs. "I like apples"). Stories had a beginning, middle, and an end with main ideas and supporting statements even though she has no idea what a main idea or supporting statement is. She also has been going back to add details and rewrite previous stories to make them better.
The misspelled words really do drive me crazy but I do feel that she will eventually learn to spell better and I am proud of her writing.
Just wanted to provide a possibly new perspective on it all....