Grading daily journals is easier than you might expect.  I keep a clipboard with the kids’ names on it and separate sections to write down their grade (as seen in the picture).  The students write in their journals when they have finished with their seat work.  They even have an extra 15 minutes at the end of the day to work on journal.  When they’re done with journal, they show it to me and I mark their grade on the sheet.  If they were required to write 5 sentences and they were written correctly, they receive a 5 out of 5, equaling 100%.  If they forgot some punctuation and we still have time at the end of the day, I’ll send them back to their desk to fix it.  If we were out of time, the student would receive a 4 out of 5, equaling an 80%.

Here is how I enter them into the gradebook:  If the journal topic was about math, their score for the day’s entry is placed in Math, and so on.  Any other topics that are free writing are entered in English or Reading.

I created a template that I use to record their writing.  If you are interested, click the link to download:

http://theresourcefulteacher.com/index.php/teacher-resources#ecwid:category=2378762&mode=product&product=10239590