 | Examples of 4 different journaling types:
processing, tracking, planning, and sharing. |
As you may recall, our Tuesday morning group started September with a two-month unit on journaling. Prep work (for Lesson 2) My homework between Lesson 1 and Lesson 2 became clear during Lesson 1. Learners needed their horizons widened. A brief Google search quickly identified several bloggers willing to introduce me to different types of journals. Notice how many journaling types I discovered just from these four blog entries: Are there really this many types of journals? If so, how was I ever going to introduce them to learners without boring them to death?
My Discoveries For the next step in my exploration, I recorded the name of every type of journal presented in these blogs plus several more blogs. Discovery 1. With time, I realized that many of the blogs were just repeating each other. The list narrowed itself to 25 types. How was I going to engage everyone in all 25 types? In only 20 minutes? Discovery 2. Perhaps more importantly, I discovered that these 25 "journal types" organized themselves into four distinct categories. Thank goodness. Four is much more manageable than 25.
4 Categories I've since named the categories as processing, tracking, planning, and experiencing. Keep reading and find out what I put in each category. See if you agree. Did I miss anything? Let me know in the comments below.
Processing is about committing thoughts to paper, followed by thought-provoking explorations. These thoughts toy with and explore ideas. Here are some of the specific names given to this type of journal writing.
- Brain dump journal
- Stream-of-consciousness journal
- Morning Pages journal
- Prompted writing journal
- Gratitude journal
- Prayer/bible journal
- Idea journal
- Therapy journal
- 1-line-a-day journal
- 5-minute journal
Tracking is about making lists of repetitive actions that are key to forward movement on our goals, then checking the actions off each time we perform them. Here are some of the specific names given to this type of journal writing.
- Goal action steps tracker
- Bucket list tracker
- Diet tracker
- Exercise or fitness tracker
- Mood or energy level tracker
- Water tracker
Planning is about productivity. Productivity planners are about scheduling actions and time, organizing lists of tasks by due dates. Thus, this type of journal always pairs itself with a calendar. Here are some of the specific names given to this type of journal writing.
- Bullet journal
- Planner
- Daily schedule
- To Do lists
- Project planner
Experiencing is about combining pictures, images, or even video with explanatory texts. That's just a sentence or two or a few key words to highlight the context and importance of this "experience." These journal entries may integrate sketches with handwritten text in a notebook, photos with typed text in a word processing file, or even postings on social media (e.g., Facebook, blog, Instagram, Twitter, or TikTok). These journal entries tell a specific story. Here are some of the specific names given to this type of journal writing.
- Dream journal
- Creative design doodling journal
- Art journal
- Memory journal
- Scrapbook journal
- Meal planner journal
- Food journal
- Flower-of-the-Day journal
- Learning journal
- Travel journal
- Gardening journal
- Nature journal
- Junk journal
- Pregnancy journal
- Poetry journal
Lesson 2 I shared images and explanations for each of the four journal types described above. My purpose? - First, increase learners' knowledge of what journal writing encompasses.
- Second, engage learners in identifying which three of the four journal types they'd want to try for themselves.
- And lastly, help learners work out the details of this unit's final outcome product.
Their decisions? The three journal types we'll be exploring over the next six weeks will be experiencing, tracking, and processing. We'll also create a rating sheet for identifying the pros and cons of each type and proclaiming our individual choices.
Want to see how this works out? Follow us. |
Guest blogger - D. Young. This article first published in Adult Literacy: Issues, Instruction, & Impact.
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