What About Journaling? Does it Work?

A few years ago, my school instituted journaling–from math class to art class. Everyone was writing about their feelings, providing feedback on projects, answering teacher-initiated prompts. They delivered unedited, ungraded opinions, encouraged to shoot from the hip, be honest, speak their minds. This was from the model of the LA Freedom Writers when a young teacher inspired her class of at-risk students to learn tolerance, apply themselves, and pursue education by journaling. The result was su