Use the news: The value of diaries

Lesson for grades 5-8

Keeping journals or diaries gives students a great way to practice expressive writing. In them they can record their feelings about what is going on in their lives, their favorite things to do and what they’d like to achieve in the future. In the Canadian province New Brunswick, a sixth-grade teacher assigned diary writing in the late 1970s and 1980s as a creative writing exercise.

Now, more than 30 years later, the teacher wants to return the diaries and give his former students a glimpse of what they were like as junior high students. Hugh Brittain, who is now retired, intended to give the diaries back to students at their high school graduations, but many did not get delivered, CNN News reported. When he retired, he couldn’t bring himself to throw the diaries out.

He has turned to social media to get the diaries back in the hands of their writers. He posted pictures of the diaries to a local Facebook page and has reconnected with students all over Canada and the United States. “I was so surprised but very moved that he just really cared and that he kept that work,” one student said.

Keeping a diary or journal is a great way to build writing skills.

Activity: In the newspaper or online, closely read stories that interest you over the next week. Keep a diary of your reactions to the stories and why they made you feel that way. For each day, also record something that happened in your personal life and how that made you feel. Re-read your diary at the end of the week. Or keep going with new diary entries. Compare diaries with friends, if you like.