Hi @qnguyen and @kona . We have repurposed the Assignment Tool as our Journal tool. It's not an exact match to Bb's Journal tool but it can get the job done to a degree to facilitate the back-and-forthing private communication between the teacher and student roles in the class. Looking at this construct through a different facet or two there are different variations to this theme you can use I have found, too.
Approach A - recycled journal prompt submitted to the same Assignment tool for one collective Unit journal grade.
Here's our workaround for a 3-2-1 journal reflection in our modules using the Unit/Lesson structure.
- Name a new assignment tool "3-2-1 Journal"
- Set the assignment for unlimited submissions.
- Position the Assignment tool (disguised as a Journal tool) under the first lesson content and learning/assessment activities.
- For all subsequent Lessons in the same Unit module RE-add the same Assignment tool below each in the same/similar structural position (e.g. after a certain repeating lesson component, indented a certain level, etc as a structure consistency promising practice of course
)
Once positioned, understand that this is the same Assignment tool the students will access again and again in the module so the directions would be helpful to remind students of this. I usually include a "If this is your first time here..." and a "If you are returning to add a new journal reflection..." type of distinction in the directions. And then add your
- 3 things that surprised you when you learned about them,
- 2 of the most important concepts that you wrote in your notes to remember,
- 1 thing you could probably teach in a different way and how you would teach it differently.
...or whatever your repeating journal prompt is.
Approach B - unique lesson prompts all posted in the same Journal (Assignment) tool.
We have some teachers who prefer different prompts for each lesson instead of the repeating prompt approach above. The workaround I share for them is a bit different. I'll use the same Unit/Lesson structure for the example as above.
- Create a new Assignment tool named "Unit 1 Journal."
- In the Unit Module, add a new Content Page named "Unit 1 Lesson 1 Journal"
- Edit the Page to begin with the journal prompt or reflection direction for that particular lesson.
- In a new paragraph type something like "Paste the journal response in a new Unit 1 Journal submission using the journal link below."
- That's where you'd embed the link to the Journal/Assignment Tool you have stashed away in the Assignment silo over in your class menu.
- Using SpeedGrader comments are added by the teacher for each submission or reviewed once at the end by the teacher for the points.
- In the end you wind up with one, journal'ish grade with a student submitting multiple, private reflections just to the teacher
Approach C - unique grades for each journal entry; student has all entries at a glance in one space
A third approach that some teachers find easier to manage is available for teachers who don't want a shared grade over multiple journal entries. Instead, they'd like individual grades for individual journal activities but they still want the continuity and flow of thought for a student to have previous entries all in a single place for perhaps a culminating Unit level ultimate reflective activity or some PBL. In this approach the teacher creates a new word processing document such as in Word or Google Doc pre-loaded with each of that Unit's Journal reflections for every Lesson in the Unit. (TIP: Plus-it by dividing-up the original document with page breaks and placing the prompts on different pages with their respective Lesson numbers to leave a full page of space for the student's response below it.) The idea here is at the start of the Unit module's progress, perhaps on Unit overview Page, the student is instructed to grab their own instance of that journal file either by a file download if in Word (or by adding ".../copy" to a GoogleDoc URL for students to click-and-clone-for-their-own) that the student maintains in parallel to their Module progression and pacing. After every Lesson the teacher places a unique Assignment Tool named as Unit 1 Lesson 1 Journal (or whatever the numbers are (but maintaining a consistent, logical naming convention will facilitate alphabetization in the Assignment silo if you ever have to look for it there) and directs the students in the Assignment tool...
- to open their Journal document and complete the prompt for Unit 1 Lesson 1
- save their changes to the file (if using a local productivity suite application that doesn't auto-save like Gdocs does)
- submit their file to the Assignment tool.
In SpeedGrader the teacher will use Crocodoc to view the student's journal file scrolling to that lesson's writing prompt response providing feedback and a grade to that Assignment Tool. At the end of the Unit the teacher was able to provide a unique points value for every Assignment Tool journal attachment, and the student winds up with a Word or Google doc that can be scrolled through easily to revisit each Lesson level reflection/response prior to completing the Unit culminating whatever it is that awaits them.
Approach D - a recycled journal prompt earning unique grades submitted to individual Assignment tools with all reflections winding up in the same place for the student at the end of the unit.
This is a mashup that leverages Approaches A, B and C to your needs.
These plans all depend on listening to what end-result each individual teacher is looking for from their student (and also their own teacher feedback/grading level of engagement) and then helping the teacher shade and appropriate the Assignment Tool settings and/or recurrences to meet their preferences. There are so many more approaches to journaling out there, but these are four that I can speak to directly by helping teachers view the Assignment tool application in a new light. Share back if any of these help or if you have a different approach you've been using.
