Using dialogue journals to foster a student-teacher relationship in the elementary classroom

The purpose of this study was to implement dialogue journals into a fourth grade classroom to find out if they fostered a relationship between the teacher and students. Over the course of five weeks, students were each given a journal in which he/she would correspond with me. As a class, topics to write about were brainstormed. However, students were welcomed to write about any topic of their choice. Students were asked to write one journal entry per week. Journals were returned the following Monday morning with my response. Data collection consisted of pre-dialogue journal survey, anecdotal teacher notes, the dialogue journals and the post-journal survey. Data was analyzed by comparing students\u27 pre-journal survey responses with actual journal entries and post-journal survey. The surveys offered students\u27 impressions on writing pre-and post journaling as well as whether they felt our relationship had strengthened through the use of the journals. The dialogue journals were an asset to the process of data analysis as this is where the rapport was established and noted. The study showed that dialogue journals can help foster a relationship between the students and teacher. The study also revealed that writing in dialogue journals can portray much more authentic writing than traditional classroom writing assignments