Esther Al-Tabaa

1. What class are you using TJP in?

In English 1311 Expository Composition

2. What are some of the goals/purposes for the class?

To create a discourse community where dialogue is created through their readings and what they interpret the readings to be.  Also to create a more relaxed atmosphere.

3. How are you using it in the class? A specific exercise.

I post a reading assignment and then have them discuss it in their journals.  I also break up the assignment and give the discourse zone group a section that each group needs to discuss, so that the rest of the class is able to read it.  Kind of a archive of a reading.

4. What percentage of the grade do you give to the journal and why?

I count it as 200 points of their final points.  I give so many points because I want the students to understand this is an important component of the class and is valuable to their writing experience.

5. How does TJP help fulfill those goals?

 The Journal Place creates a controlled writing situation, where students write more, but also stay on topic because their writing has become public information, verses having them freewrite where no one will be reading their thoughts.

6. What special insights would you like to share with a reader/fellow teacher?  That is, any special way that TJP has helped or opened the class up?

Most students have never tried a writing atmosphere like this.  Most are excited and can't wait to start communicating using TJP.   I am trying to make TJP a community where free thinking is allowed and respected, so that everyone will feel comfortable and open about their understanding of the readings and their thoughts on what others are saying.

Judy Webb

I am using TJP in one section of a 1311 (first semester freshman writing) class that meets in a Computer Lab. 

The goals and purpose I am trying to achieve with TJP is to allow students to share the responses/answers to questions from readings in Critical Reading. In the past, these responses have been written on paper, or written in one of the tear-out sheets in the Guide to Freshman Composition.(GFC) I have found that many students fail to purchase a copy of GFC, and therefore have no guidelines in which to answer questions. I believe they fail to do the entire homework assignment to include the reading. In other words, "I don’t have a hand-out, so why should I read, since I will not get credit anyway." 

I believe TJP eliminates this problem. I post these questions. An added plus is that they see what fellow classmates are writing as a means of  social interaction, of increasing knowledge, and of gathering ideas as writing prompts. 

I also see them using TJP as a means of addressing problems, especially those pertaining to the course. Currently, they are learning Microsoft Publisher, and are building a portfolio using that program. I foresee them relying on TJP to work through some of the problems they incur at home. Since TJP is used to fulfill other assignments, such as in-class responses, homework assignments, and since the course has a participation factor, its overall contribution to the course grade is approximately 25 percent. 

Lisa Smith

1. I use TJP in Freshman Composition classes (1311).

2. We use it to create a personal journaling logand to enter individual and group repsonse logs to various class readings.  We also use it to access the class website.

3. One exercise:  Write an expressive paragraph about your mother.  Try to make it so vivid that a reader could pick her out of a crowd based on your description.  Then visit your clustermates and comment on their descriptions of their mothers based on the elements of expressive writing we have studied in this unit (not very imaginative, but I think the students enjoy the technological format and visiting each other's sites).

4.  The journal is not graded separately.  The work done there is part of the student's overall daily grade (20% of total grade).

5.  N/A

6.   At first I think the journal is a bit overwhelming with all the other assignments and materials the class uses, but I think overall it gives students a sense of attachment to the class not found in the ordinary class exercises--even group exercises.  There is a certain level of shared privacy that allows students to write and discourse freely and somewhat anonymously.