Co-creating in the Middle: Interrogating Ambiguity for Middle Grades Educators through Journaling and Collaboration

Traditional * Diary-style written or typed Nontraditional * Ambiguous formatting and loose definition of journaling * Text journals, words, or audio * Conversational exchanges via digital platforms, often followed by "quick writes" or note jots While our work was between collegial academic middle grades teacher educators, there are implications for middle grades teachers and their students. For classroom teachers seeking to interrogate ambiguities inherent in problems of practice, similar options may include traditional diary-style written entries, as well as professional learning community (PLC)-anchored reflections through text, meeting table conversations, and stream-of-consciousness audio exchanges. Candidates meet the developmental needs of all learners and collaborate with school personnel to use a variety of print and digital materials to engage and motivate all learners; integrate digital technologies in appropriate, safe, and effective ways; foster a positive climate that supports a literacy-rich learning environment. Focusing this thinking with the middle grades classroom as a guiding perspective, it follows to think that journaling through creative definitions, ambiguous formatting options, and multimodalities will help not only to support a culture of literacy richness in the middle grades classroom but also to encourage students to explore and to cultivate their abstract ideas.