Visual Journals
Visual journals are a creative way for students to demonstrate their learning and thinking. It is a great idea to encourage students to self-direct their visual journal journey by setting very few guidelines and encouraging them to explore a variety of mediums and techniques. Allowing students to have autonomy in the way that they represent their learning in their journal is very important as this ensures originality and variation between different students in the class. This can be used as a tool across all subject areas and students can have the freedom of working in their journal when they see fit, provided they are not being disruptive.
As an educator, you can bring in recycled materials such as buttons, swatches of fabric, magazines and old books for students to use during the construction of their journals. Students are free to bring materials from home that they would like to use as well, especially scraps or items they no longer have other uses for. Encourage your students to think outside the box, to tear paper in unconventional ways and experiment with different things. Showing some examples can be a great way to help some students who need a bit of direction. In addition, having students share their journals in small groups or having a gallery walk can be a very interactive, fun process that everyone can actively participate in.
For many of us, adding to our visual journal has been a very therapeutic, relaxing process where we were able to express ourselves in any way that we felt comfortable. Many of us do not consider ourselves artists yet found this process to be very enjoyable, rewarding, and interactive with out peers as we shared our work with each other.