Connection Journal involves students keeping a journal throughout the course, in which they respond to prompts from the educator that involve connecting the content covered in that day or week’s class to their existing knowledge and experiences.
For example, connecting to material covered earlier in the course, or something in the world around them (e.g. “How do you see [concept covered in class] playing out on campus?”).
Instructions
- Have students bring a notebook and pen or digital alternative to each class. This will be known as their connection journal.
- Allocate time in each class or week and give students a prompt to connect content in that day or week’s class/es to their existing knowledge or experiences. Give students a set amount of time to respond in their connection journal.
- Ask a few students to share their responses with the class.
Resources
- Notebooks (physical or digital)
- Prompts
Variations
- Make it a shared online notebook: Students can read, learn from and potentially comment on each other’s responses, adding an element of peer instruction. Try ANU licensed software like Padlet.
- Make it flipped: Provide students with a prompt at the end of class and instruct them to look for and note down connections between that class and the next. Ask students to volunteer anything interesting they noted in the next class.
References
Small changes that you can make to your teaching today.pdf (nea.org)