Requiring a table of contents and a page-numbering system allows you to spot check entries, assigning a quantity mark to them. Many successful journal users set up a rotating schedule so that both they and their students know exactly how many they will read a week. Decide what appearance you want the journal to take. What you set up at the beginning of class will affect you and your students the entire semester. By doing this basic planning, you will find journals a very useful tool both for you and for your students.
Journals are more than personal diaries.
They are tools for learning and communicating in many fields of study. Whether they take the form of field notebooks or office or laboratory logs, journals are crucial to professional reflection, data storage, information flow, and professional accountability. In school, however, sometimes the only experience students have with journal writing is personal diary keeping. While this type of journalizing has a tremendous value, teachers who are interested in helping students to acculturate to the professional behavior of a field of study may want to incorporate an assignment that gives students a chance to manage a journal the way they would professionally. Because this is an extended assignment, journals can be used to shape an entire course.