Journaling is an act of agentive note-taking or reflection designed to keep an external thoughts of feelings, insights in more.

The modality of a journal can range from text, to blogs, drawings, and video. The choden mode often reflects the agency of the author and the discipline of the subject.

Disciplinary literacy refers to instruction that is discipline-specific in nature and attends to the unique ways that experts in each respective field approach and interact with text (Shanahan & Shanahan,2008). A physicists notes will not look like a notebook when critiquing a graphic novel.

Journaling within a subject allows readers and writers to essentially become members of the disciplinary community. They take on the role of disciplinary experts within the pages of the journal and interact with the text in such (Brozoet al., 2013) ways as those who work in the discipline.