Sample Topics

I have PDF'ed the journal topics I used. These include both Spanish entries and some of the cultural literacy topics as well.

Year One: In year one I was primarily interested in giving "prompt" like topics that were open and random in hopes of encouraging creativity. They were not used to this and many struggled so I did start changing up the topics to try and be more in line with current units of study.
Spanish 2A (Freshmen Honor's Course)
Spanish 3 (Sophomore Level)
Spanish 4 (Sophomore/Junior Level, NYS Regents Level)

Year Two: In year two, I wanted to keep the topics semi in line with current topics but I also did away with my traditional bell ringer activity that was done a separate sheet of paper that was collected every day. Instead, students walked in and had something to write in their journals every day. So there were two entries per day which was a lot to check in and read.
Spanish 2A (Freshmen Honor's Course)
Spanish 4 (Sophomore/Junior Level, NYS Regents Level)

Year Three: In year three, I have tried giving options because students felt sometimes the topics did not jive with them. I also took student suggestions for topics and used some of them. The starters or bell ringers have been primarily electronic since I have a class set of Chromebooks in my room this year.
Spanish 2A (Freshmen Honor's Course)
Spanish 4 (Sophomore/Junior Level, NYS Regents Level)

Year Four: During the summer before year four, a fundamental shift in my thinking happened and that then changed the journaling system to what it remained to be in year five. I started thinking about quality vs quantity. In year three, I had the students final draft a couple entries and liked the idea. I liked the idea of them improving their work since we rarely have them final draft in our class like they do in ELA. We expect different things though I'm not sure why. So I created a rough draft/final draft system. I also created accompanying rubrics and loved what I created.
Spanish 2A (Freshman Honor's Course)
Spanish 4 (Sophomore/Junior Level, NYS Regents Level)

Year Five: In year five, I kept the same ideas I'd started in four and also added a prep so I have three levels. Although between Spanish 2A and 3, there are some common units so I did borrow from level 2A for Spanish 3. I also am trying to incorporate some of the read to write tasks into Spanish 4. Though I still struggle with grading such quantity of entries toward the end of a quarter.There may be changes half way through this year or next year.
First Writing Topics for all Levels given in September
Spanish 2A (Freshman Honor's Course)
Spanish 3 (Sophomore Class)
Spanish 4 (Sophomore/Junior Level, NYS Regents Level)

Year Six: In year six, I reflected on how I had been stressing quality over quantity yet still wasn't so happy with all the final drafts. They had improved but I realized many students didn't know how to improve an entry. They struggled to do this in their own language so coming up with a new introduction or adding details in another language was even more challenging. Also collecting and commenting on one entry per student per unit was more realistic than reading three entries. So this year each student did one writing piece per unit that they edited throughout the unit. This year wasn't as strict as the others for a variety of reasons.

Spanish 2A: Freshman Honor's Course
Introduction Letter
Childhood Scrapbook: Description, Editing Powerpoint
Sporting Event: Brainstorm, Editing Powerpoint
Daily Routine: Brainstorm, Editing Powerpoint

Spanish 4: Sophomore/Junior Level, NYS Regents Level
First Writing
Acampar: Topic, Rubric & Articles for read to write
Family Reunion at the Beach: brainstorm, rubric, teacher example