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III. Journals in a Facing HistoryClassroom*
Philosopher Hannah Arendt, herself arefugee of the Holocaust, asked, “Could theactivity of thinking . . . be among the con-ditions that make men abstain from evil-doing or even ‘condition’ them against it?”
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 A study of Nazi Germany reveals the dangerthat can befall a society that is conditionednot to critically examine the world aroundthem. Adolf Hitler remarked, “What luck for leaders that men do not think.”
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Hisbelief that people “do not think” (or thatpeople could be conditioned to not think)gave him confidence that he could pushthrough his racist agenda without muchresistance. Indeed, the Nazis built an educa-tion system that force-fed knowledge andpropaganda and discouraged questioningand individual thought. They also prohib-ited free speech and free assembly, and kepttheir citizenry so busy with state-requiredtasks and meetings that there was “no timeto think.” Just as dictatorships like theThird Reich rely on an unthinking popu-lace to maintain control, healthy democracies depend on a citizenry capable of criticalthinking in order to support institutions such as a free press, an evenhanded judicial sys-tem, and fair and open elections.Facing History and Ourselves is committed to helping students develop their ability tocritically examine their surroundings from multiple perspectives and to make informed judgments about what they see and hear. Keeping a journal is one tool that Facing
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*Our ideas about the importance of journals in a Facing History and Ourselves classroom have been informed by decadesof experience listening to teachers and students as well as by academic research, especially the following studies: Lisa Colt,Fanny Connelly, and John Paine, “Excerpts from Student Journals in Response to the Curriculum
Facing History and Ourselves: Holocaust and Human Behavior 
.” Moral Education Forum, Summer 1981.
 A Facing History student writes in his journal.
 
History has found instrumental in helping students develop these skills. A journal mightbe defined as any place where thoughts are recorded and stored. Loose-leaf and boundnotebooks both make excellent journals. Many students find that writing or drawing in a journal helps them process ideas, formulate questions, and retain information. Journalsmake learning visible by providing a safe, accessible space for students to share thoughts,feelings and uncertainties. In this way, journals are also an assessment tool—somethingteachers can review to better understand what their students know, what they are strug-gling to understand, and how their thinking has changed over time. In addition tostrengthening students’ critical thinking skills, journal writing serves other purposes as well. Journals help nurture classroom community. Through reading and commenting on journals, teachers build relationships with students. Frequent journal writing also helpsstudents become more fluent in expressing their ideas in writing or speaking.Students use their journals in different ways. Some students may record ideas throughoutclass while others may only use it when there is a particular teacher-driven assignment.Some students need prompts to support their writing, while other students feel morecomfortable expressing their ideas without any external structure. Just as students vary inhow they use their journals, teachers vary in their approach to journal writing as well. While there are many effective ways to use a journal as a learning tool in the classroom,below are six suggestions that we offer based on decades of experience working withteachers and students.
Questions to Consider When Using Journals in the Classroom
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What is the teacher’s relationship with students’ journals? 
Students are entitled to know how you plan on reading their journals. Will you read everything they write? If they  want to keep something private, is this possible? If so, how do students indicate thatthey do not want you to read something? Will their journals be graded? If so, by  what critieria? (See more on grading journals below.) For teachers at most schools, itcan be impossible to read everything students write in their journals; there just is notenough time in the day. For this reason, some teachers decide to collect students’ journals once a week and read only a page or two—sometimes a page the studentselects and sometimes a page selected by the teacher. Other teachers may never col-lect students’ journals, but might glance at them during class time or might ask stu-dents to incorporate quotes and ideas from their journals into collected assignments. You can set limits on the degree to which you have access to students’ journals. Many teachers establish a rule that if students wish to keep information in their journalsprivate, they should fold the page over or remove the page entirely.2.
What is appropriate content for journals? 
It is easy for students to confuse a class jour-nal with a diary (or blog) because both of these formats allow for open-ended writ-ing. Teachers should clarify how the audience and purpose for this writing is distinctfrom the audience and purpose for writing in a personal diary. In most classrooms,the audience for journal writing is the author, the teacher, and at times, peers. FacingHistory believes the purpose of journal writing is to provide a space where studentscan connect their personal experiences and opinions to the concepts and events they are studying in the classroom. Therefore, some material that is appropriate to includein their personal diaries may not be appropriate to include in their class journals. Toavoid uncomfortable situations, many teachers find it helpful to clarify topics that arenot suitable material for journal entries. Also, as mandatory reporters in most school
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districts, teachers should explain that they are required to take certain steps, such asinforming a school official, if students reveal information about possible harm tothemselves or another student. Students should be made aware of these rules, as wellas other guidelines you might have about appropriate journal writing content.3.
How will journals be evaluated? 
Many students admit that they are less likely to sharetheir true thoughts or express questions when they are worried about a grade basedon getting the “right” answer or using proper grammar or spelling. Therefore, wesuggest that if you choose to grade students’ journals, which many teachers decide todo, that you base these grades on criteria such as effort, thoughtfulness, completion,creativity, curiosity, and making connections between the past and the present. Additionally, there are many ways to provide students with feedback on their journalsbesides traditional grading, such as by writing comments or asking questions.Students can even evaluate their own journals for evidence of intellectual and moralgrowth. For example, you might have students look through their journal to find evi-dence of their ability to ask questions or to make connections between what was hap-pening in Nazi Germany and an event from their own life.4.
What forms of expression can be included in a journal? 
Students learn and communi-cate best in different ways. The journal is an appropriate space to respect differentlearning styles. Some students may wish to draw their ideas, rather than recordthoughts in words. Other students may feel most comfortable responding in concept webs and lists, as opposed to prose. When you introduce the journal to students, youmight brainstorm different ways that they might express their thoughts.5.
How can journals be used to help students build vocabulary? 
Throughout this unit, stu-dents will be encountering new vocabulary, while they develop a more sophisticatedunderstanding of concepts which might already be familiar to them. From the earliestdays of Facing History, the journal was used as a place to help students build theirvocabulary through constructing “working definitions.” The phrase “working defini-tion” implies that our understanding of concepts evolve as we are confronted withnew information and experiences. Students’ definitions of words such as “identity” or“belonging” should be richer at the end of the unit than they are on day one. Wesuggest you use the journal—perhaps a special section of it—as a space where stu-dents can record, review, and refine their definitions of important terms referred to inthis unit. (Note: Each lesson plan includes a list of key terms.)6.
How should journal content be publicly shared? 
Most Facing History teachers havefound that students are best able to express themselves when they believe that their journal is a private space. Therefore, we suggest that information in students’ journalsis never publicly shared without the consent of the writer. At the same time, weencourage you to provide multiple opportunities for students to voluntarily shareideas and questions they have recorded in their journals. Some students may feelmore comfortable reading directly from their journals than speaking “off-the-cuff” inclass discussions.
Suggestions for Using Journals in the Classroom
Once you settle on the norms and expectations for journal writing in your class, there aremany possible ways that you can have students record ideas in their journals. Here aresome examples:
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