Aimed at teachers interested in implementing student journals in their classrooms, this guide offers subjects students can write about and ideas for how to use journal writing as a classroom activity, and justifies writing across curriculum lines. The first section of the guide, entitled Mirrors, suggests that students can benefit from writing in an unstructured way, either privately or for the teacher to read, and offers guidelines for reading and grading the journals and for handling students who dislike writing in them. The second section, Images, offers subjects for students to write about, such as interesting words, quotations, wishes, speculations, family activities, and values. The guide encourages teachers to have students sign a contract to write in the journal, and a copy of the contract is included in this section. The third section, Illusions, justifies writing across curriculum boundaries, and offers suggestions for how journals can be used in various types of classrooms. The guide encourages teachers to have students write at the beginning or end of classes in order to focus and gather their thoughts, or during discussions when ideas become unfocused. It notes that science classes can use journals as logs of events in an experiment, and mathematics classes can use them to solve difficult equations when students are confused. A conclusion suggests that teachers encourage even those students who are not natural writers to keep a journal. A bibliography is included. (JC)