Journaling: 4 Journal Categories

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: 

• 10 Different Types of Journaling...
• 20 Types of Journals to Keep
• 7 Types of Journals with Examples
• 6 Types of Journals You Should Keep 

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.   

Sample processing journal entry

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

 

Sample tracking journal entry

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

 

Sample planning journal entry

Planning is about productivity. Productivity planners are about scheduling actions with time, organizing lists of tasks by due dates. Thus, this type of journal often 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

 

Sample experience journal entry

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.   

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Journaling: What do we know?

What's the cover of your journal look like?
This unique collage cover inspires.

Have you ever kept a journal? 

If so, what kind? I don't mean - bullet journal, Midori, Hobonichi, or spiral notebook. I mean, regardless of the paper stock and binding preferences, what was your purpose for journaling? What did you record? Pretty art work? To do lists? Deepest thoughts?

Our new unit

Why am I asking? Because our Tuesday morning group decided this month to narrow their topic choice from practical spelling, herbs & spices, and sugar in our bodies to journal writing. That's right - for the next two months they'll be devoted to journal writing.

Where to start

So, what knowledge and skills should they take away from this instruction? What essential questions will get learners most engaged? What do they need to know about journal writing that will sustain them into the future?  All important questions.

Our first questions however were: "What do we already know?" and "What do we want to learn?" We quickly determined that our knowledge was tied pretty much to diaries. In fact, learners who are currently reading Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl were quite certain that that's what journals were all about. However, when questioned, learners were not interested in listing what they did all day. Unlike Anne Frank's life, they assured me their lives were too dull to write about. 

What would you do?

What would you include in this unit if you were teaching it? What would you want to learn from this unit?

My next step appeared very clear at this point. I had to introduce them to journals that weren't merely about describing their day-to-day activities. 

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Reading-Writing: Free Scholarship Opportunity for the Mind

"Learning about what you don't know and then writing about it is akin to continuing your education on a scholarship." Marshall Krantz (1996)

Read-Write Connection

This line from Krantz's book Ideas and Research reminds me that reading and writing go hand-in-hand. I'm quite aware that reading and writing are cognitively diverse operations. Reading is about decoding symbols and connecting personal knowledge with the author's words to generate the author's intended message supported by the textual evidence. Writing is about composing ideas from personal, situational, and worldly contexts then transcribing them into words - articulating noises in our minds - that we must then conjure up appropriately-related symbols that eventually will convey the same thoughts as we intended them to mean. 

Mind Tools

My point is that reading and writing are tools of the mind - a way to process and share thoughts.

Often learners (and tutors) don't want to write because the process (especially spelling and grammar) seems cumbersome. And, writing always takes more time than talking. Writing, however, forces us to think and articulate our thoughts in ways that are very different than talking. 

Deep Thinking

My push is to get more people to think more deeply about what they are learning or want to learn and get them to record these thoughts on paper. 

Writing about what you've just read in your own words requires reflective thought. Time spent in reflection strengthens and deepens learning - creating and dedicating more synapses to the content and process of our intentional focus. 

What do you do to help you think 

deeply about what you are learning?