Concordia University students (pre-service teachers) and Oak View Middle School 8th grade reading students wrote to each other through dialogue journals as they read a book chosen by the 8th grader. They not only discussed their book but also share about their lives, families, schools, and different cultures.
Concordia students were to use this as an opportunity to model good reading and writing skills as well as practice reading and motivational strategies that they will need in their future teaching. The 8th graders were hopefully motivated to read more and with deeper comprehension as well as enjoy the freedom of writing without concern of being graded or critiqued. This allowed them to work on developing writing fluency.
The Dialogue Journaling culminated with a pizza party at the Middle School so the journal partners could meet and visit in person. When they saw each other for the first time, it was as if they were long lost friends! This was a wonderful learning experience for everyone! (For more information on the activity you can email Dr. Michele Pickel, assistant professor of education at Concordia University St. Paul - pickel@csp.edu for more ideas go to Prof Pickel's homepage.)
These are some of our Spring 2004 Journal Partners....
  
  
 
  
 
Here are a few pictures of the pizza party!
 
 
 
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