Journal Checklist

Your Drama Journal is collected at the end of each unit. Before you hand it in, run this check — it is the same lens I read with, so anything you catch here is something we never need to have a conversation about. Ten minutes with this list is usually worth more than one extra entry.

The check

Coverage

• There is an entry for every workshop day in the unit
• Entries were written close to the day, not reconstructed the night before collection — reconstructed entries always show
• At least one entry is written in role, using Writing in Role
• At least one entry responds to work I watched, using the describe-first habit from Watching Like an Artist

Quality

• Every entry names at least one specific moment — a person, a choice, a thing that was said (see What a Strong Entry Looks Like)
• At least one entry admits a real difficulty: something that failed, a moment I froze, friction in the group and where it came from
• Course vocabulary appears where it belongs, used correctly — tableau, status, focus — not sprinkled for decoration
• My own part is named, not hidden inside “we” — what I suggested, tried, avoided, or changed

Growth

• Each entry ends with one concrete “what I would try next”
• At least one earlier “try next” item shows up later as a thing I actually tried — with a sentence about how it went

The last two boxes are the whole game

Anyone can write “I will project more.” The journal becomes evidence of growth the day a later entry says “I tried projecting to the back wall during the run, and for once nobody asked me to speak up” — a loop from intention to attempt to result. That loop is exactly what Showing Growth will ask you to point at, so leave yourself things to point at.

Curriculum connection

B1.1

use the critical analysis process before and during drama projects to identify and assess individual roles and responsibilities in producing drama works (e.g., use journal writing, teacher-guided reflection, cooperative problem solving, writing in role, and discussion to identify team members’ skills and knowledge and assess their use in project tasks)

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B3.2

identify specific social skills and personal characteristics they have acquired or strengthened through drama work that can help them succeed in other areas of life (e.g., describe their personal development in areas such as risk taking, self-confidence, self-awareness, listening, questioning, negotiating, consensus building)

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