This project will begin with a discussion about visual journaling to provide a background and context for what the students will be doing. The teacher would begin by asking students to develop their own definition of the term "visual journaling." After some discussion, the historical background of visual journaling can be presented including information on the earliest text/image associations with written language such as is found in the ancient work of the Native Americans and Egyptians. Other examples of visual journals include the work of explorers such as James Cook and Lewis and Clark intheir records from their voyages around the world and across America in the eighteenth century. The notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, as well as the architectural journals of Frank Lloyd Wright can serve as other examples of different forms of visual journaling. Many artists such as Vincent Van Gogh and Frida Kahlo have kept notebooks/visual journals as well.
After sharing and discussing student comments, students respond with their impressions on why and how visual journaling can be an effective in developing writing skills. The following books and resources will then be passed around and viewed by students to provide some authentic examples of visual journals. I feel that providing these models will help students conceptualize this project.
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The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci
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The Diary of Frida Kahlo: An Intimate Self-Portrait
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The Journey is the Destination: The Journals of Dan Eldon
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The Principles of Uncertainty by Mira Kalman
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Examples of student work from Web sites on the Internet.
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Students discuss these examples by comparing and contrasting the different examples. Responses are recorded on chart paper. Points to include in the discussion would be the different styles, characteristics of the journals; things the students noticed: drawings, paintings, doodles, hand-written notes, pasted in letters, collages, words, sentences, phrases, lists, labeling, descriptions, poems, newspaper clippings, and photographs. Students share their reactions to the introduction of project and hand in a personal written response about their own goals for their own visual journals and ideas about what they might want to explore. This information will be used to adapt and differentiate instruction for the students according to their individual interests. It is my hope that this presentation will generate a renewed interest in language arts class and an excitement about visual journaling. The overall objectives of the unit would be outlined to the students in order for them to understand that this process is designed to encourage writing, specifically elaboration skills, in a medium that would be motivating.
The next step would be to have students think about what kinds of journals they would like to make and about what the style of the notebook/sketchbook, size, and type of paper should be. Some visual journals use old scrapbooks, atlases, photo albums in which the student use their imagination to reuse and cover the pages. The class will have a collection of magazines, newspapers, photographs, postcards, art reproductions, old books that can be cut from, as well as other visual material, to be use for the activities. Crayons, colored pencils, watercolors, scissors, glue sticks, markers and other art tools will be available as well. Journal pages can be developed into collages. Students can paint colored washes on the pages of the journal in order to write on a colored background. Student can create borders around pages. Ideally there would be no computer generated images and the text would all be hand written.
The following activities can be used in the classroom as prompts for student visual journal entries. Each has a visual and verbal component to it. Some rules about the visual journals could include a prohibition against tearing out pages: however, crossing out is allowed because there are no such things as mistakes in a visual journal. This rule reminds the student that this is a journal and not a finished piece of writing or art. It is not about making a pretty picture with perfect text; it is about writing and making visual images in a personal journal. Students can create images in response to journal entries, or there may be images that will inspire them to write poems, make observations and notes, or express their thoughts and feelings. Students will be allowed to share their entries with peers in partnering, small groups or whole class.
