Tools used by writing teachers in a variety of ways, often as INVENTION techniques or to generate ideas for class discussion; sometimes referred to as Writers’ Notebooks.

Individual teachers will use journals in different ways and have different “rules” governing them. Journals usually consist of LOW-STAKES WRITING, a form of writing to discover or WRITING TO LEARN. Some teachers use journals as a means of exploring what a writer thinks. Writers improve by writing, and journals are practice at writing, trying out ideas, and exploring possibilities—activities that lead writers to REFLECT and elaborate on their ideas and how to express them.