Curiosity Journal
A curiosity (science) journal provides an engaging and personal way for students to participate in activities that also build understanding and promote achievement. Reading, writing, and talking are at the heart of authentic literacy and journals allow kids to write and then discuss the topic and issues that are interesting to them. Writing also helps kids to think analytically and evaluate as they develop a deeper understanding of the content that can then be communicated in other ways. For your journal, I want it to represent your wondering and thinking about some of the topics or issues that we discuss in class. Sometimes, I will provide prompts for your journal writing and sometimes you will be free to choose your mechanism of communication (see included handout on prompts). In some cases, I may ask you to take a position on an issue and argue for your position. If so, you should try to 1) Read the article (text) very carefully 2) Based on your reading, take a position and make the position clear to your reader 3) Make one point at a time supporting your claim and summarizing objections. 4) Write clearly enough so that anyone can understand what you have written. Keep it simple. When given the choice for an entry, you can write, draw, concept map, outline, argue a point of view, or whatever motivates you at the time. You can take the point of view of a student who is participating or that of the teacher who is considering how they would do this activity with their class. In general, a journal entry should be about 1 side of 1 page in length. You should have a minimum of 10 entries in your completed journal.