Getting to Know Your Needs

1. Getting to Know Your Needs • Consensogram - Please place a green dot on the chart above the statement that best matches you.

2. Keeping a Writer’s Notebook When I find something that inspires me, I write about it in my writer's notebook. I think of my writer's notebook as a true friend, a great listener, someone who will accept whatever I write (the good, the bad, the weird, and the tedious). My writer's notebook never judges me. It understands that becoming a writer takes a long time, and we might as well have a little fun along the way. Ralph Fletcher (2005) Julie Wiese julie_wiese@roundrockisd.org

3. Welcome! • Introductions • Goals • What is a writer’s notebook? • Writer’s Notebooks: A Valuable Tool to Create Lifelong Writers • Explore some strategies for launching writer’s notebooks in your classroom

4. “The writer’s notebook nudges students to become more active learners. It gives them a place to react to their world. To make that all-important personal connection. And the notebook provides a safe place- no grades, no one correcting their grammar.” School Talk, Writer’s Notebook: A Place to Dream, Wonder, and Explore, Ralph Fletcher

5. It is… A place to store your thoughts, feelings, observations, ideas, opinions, and more A place to record your reactions A collection of ideas “A writer’s notebook gives you a place to live like a writer, not just in school during writing time, but wherever you are, at any time of day.” Ralph Fletcher It is not… A diary Not a reading journal in which students write summaries, main ideas, or letters to characters per the teacher’s assignment What is a writer’s notebook? From A Writer’s Notebook by Ralph Fletcher

6. “When you come right down to it, a writer’s notebook is nothing more than a blank book, but within those pages you’ve got a powerful tool for writing and living.” Ralph Fletcher What does a writer’s notebook look like? • It should reflect the writer’s personality • Could be a small notepad, a journal, a sketch book, or a composition book • At the beginning of the year, give your students the opportunity to personalize their notebooks

7. An excerpt from Ralph Fletcher’s Writer’s Notebook… “This morning I stopped to buy an iced coffee. When I got home I took out my writer's notebook, the most important tool I have. I think of my notebook as an "idea bank" or "seed farm" where I can collect ideas, or just write for fun. I opened my writer's notebook and jotted this down: I love an iced coffee, with milk and sugar, on a warm summer's morning. Light and sweet, that's what I tell the woman at the Dunkin' Donuts, and she knows what I mean. When I've got a cup of iced coffee in my hand, so cold beads of condensation are already gathering on the sides, and I'm getting double-jolted by the surge of caffeine plus the lift, provided by those sugar crystals crunching between my teeth, I know beyond doubt it's going to be a great summer day.” "Letters To Young Writers." Ralph Fletcher, Amy Krouse Rosenthal, and Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg (Sep. 2005)

8. Strategies for Launghing the Use of Writer’s Notebooks

9. Modeling and Strategies to Jump Start Writer’s Notebooks • Teacher models writing in or shares her notebook- Model, model, model! • Start the year off by getting students excited about their writer’s notebooks • Writing off literature • Gather feelings, dreams, insights, odd facts, artifacts (ticket stubs, photographs, newspaper clippings), lines from songs, snatches of overheard conversation. • Collect favorite leads, ending, verbs, poems, etc. • What amazes/surprises/angers you • What you wonder about • What you notice • Small details that intrigue you • Memories • Lists • Lots of sharing time!- Share, share, share!

10. Ways to show good models to your students if you don’t keep your own notebook… • Borrow a notebook from a student in another class who is willing to let you photocopy select pages to share with your class • Find an example from a published writer the students are familiar with • Create a dummy notebook (Make sure to include all components you want your students to have in their ideal notebook!) Independent Writing by M. Colleen Cruz

11. Professional Resources • Notebook Know How: Strategies for the Writer’s Notebook by A. Buckner • A Writer’s Notebook by R. Fletcher • Lessons for the Writer’s Notebook by R. Fletcher and J. Portalupi • Guiding Readers and Writers by I. Fountas and G. Pinnell Children’s Books • A Writer’s Notebook by Ralph Fletcher • Amelia’s Notebook by M. Moss (lots of great books in this series) • The Pain and the Great One by J. Blume • The Keeping Quilt by P. Polacco • Poetry!

12. Questions?