journal prompts....how do you use them??

[ProudGrandma]

I have 3 children who are writing phobic.  (dd13, ds11 and ds9)...and so I thought I would start using journal promts just to get them to write....formulate thoughts in their heads and put those thoughts on paper. 

 

So I found a whole bunch of journal prompts but now I am not sure what to do next.  Do I give them 2-3 to pick from each day, do I only give them one...Some of the prompts are better for dd and some better for the boys...or better for younger, vs older. 

 

what do you do???

[MinivanMom]

We've never used prompts.  I think they can decrease motivation for journal writing by limiting the acceptable topics to write about.  I always leave it entirely up to my kids.  If they are having trouble coming up with a topic then I will give them suggestions that are geared towards them personally (but usually in the form of a question).  With ds8, for example, I might say, "What do you want to write about?  Well, what did you do this past weekend?  What did you spend all afternoon doing yesterday?  Remember how you spent all of breakfast retelling Harry Potter to your father.  Do you want to write about that?" etc, etc.  You get the idea.

 

If you really want to use prompts then I would probably give them 2-3 to choose from.  You could also put all the prompts in a jar and let them choose one out each day.  I would probably give them the option of putting it back and choosing another if they didn't like their first choice.  Mostly, I'm a big fan of giving reluctant writers as much control as possible in choosing what they write about.

[KathyJo]

This is not what you asked, and is highly opinionated, so feel free to skip it.

 

It depends on what you mean by journal prompts. I just did a quick Google, and the prompts I got varied widely. I saw some that I felt were essay topics, not journal prompts. Most journal prompts, though, seem to be creative writing. I would not use them, especially for children who already don't like writing. Many people think that if we're just asking children how they feel about things, what they think about things, about events that have happened to them, that these are going to be easy for them to write about. But this type of writing is not easy for all kids. Even worse, it doesn't do anything to actually teach children how to get those thoughts down on paper. For many kids, a journal entry is a difficult assignment with absolutely no instructions given on how to complete the assignment. I despised this kind of exercise in school. 

 

I love narration. It's gentle. It provides the subject matter. It presents a model to follow, complete with vocabulary and advanced sentence structures. Start with the shortest Aesop's fables you can find, and even the most writing phobic of students can begin without frustration.

 

If I were going to force my children to do creative writing, I would give them a choice on the subject.

[PeterPan]

We used writing prompts one year for that very reason and definitely enjoyed them!  I was using the prompts from Jump In, and they happened to be grouped by month and sort of went with what a kid might be thinking about in that month.  I had the paper in a page protector, so she could just open the notebook, look at it, then flip and write.  I don't know what she wrote, as I never looked really.  I think I may have specified an amount (fill at least half the page), don't totally remember.  I would definitely give them the out that if they don't like the prompt they can write about whatever is on their mind.  As you say, the point is increasing comfort with pen to paper, not WHAT they're writing.  

 

Alternately, consider letting them type their daily journal writing, blog it, or email it to you.  Anything typed is better in our house.  :)