Using the Writer’s Notebook with Secondary Students

1. Writer's Notebook Using the Writer’s Notebook with Secondary Students

2. A notebook can be boring, routine, non-personal—something students “trash” at the end of the year. Or A notebook can be the clearing in a forest of your life, a place where you can be alone and content as you play with outrage and wonder, details and gossip, language and dreams, plots and subplots, perceptions and small epiphanies. Ralph Fletcher What the notebook becomes is up to you, the teacher. Oh the power you hold in your hands—the power to change lives.

3. A Writer’s Notebook is . . . • a nonthreatening place to write • a place to record memories • a place to savor life • a place to explore the world and feelings • a place to record observations • a place to wonder, question, challenge • a place to organize, analyze • a place to collect ideas for writing • a place to plan for writing • a place to live like a writer • a tool to improve writing fluency • a tool to use across the curriculum

4. Slowly, as I continued to write in my notebook, I began to view myself as a writer. I had thoughts, feelings, opinions, reactions, and memories to record. I became more observant of people and of my surroundings, and I began to feel the urge to write down things that previously would have seemed insignificant. I squeezed a lot of artifacts between the pages of my notebooks and wrote about the experiences that were tied to them. But, more important, I found that I did some of my best thinking when I wrote. When I had opinions, thoughts, or reactions to express, I grabbed my notebook so that I could disentangle them on paper. Some of these entries have led to letters, poems, tributes, op-eds, and other forms of published writing. A writer’s notebook can be seductive in a good sort of way. It tugs at your elbow, enticing you to write just a little about this or that—until you realize that you are living a writerly life! -- Ralph Fletcher

5. GETTING STARTED • SELECTING A NOTEBOOK • -- inviting • -- sturdy • -- convenient to carry • -- affordable • -- you can have all students get the same notebook (composition notebooks are sturdy and affordable), or • -- you can have students select their own notebook • -- make sure you get a notebook, too! Getting a journal is like buying shoes. You have to find one that fits. -- Jean Little

6. GUIDELINES • write name/school on inside cover in case it gets lost • keep notebook close at hand and in a safe place (may want to keep in class and only let students take them home if they beg!) • date and number all entries • leave 1-2 spaces between each entry • cross out; don’t erase/tear out/throw away • mistakes are OK; conventions not the focus • write often • add special mementos, artifacts • be respectful of your writing and the writing of others • create an “Ideas” page at the very back (opt.)

7. IDEAS • Within every person is a drama, a tragedy, and a comedy. -- Mark Twain • Most of the basic material a writer works with is acquired before the age of 15. -- Willa Cather • We cannot give students rich lives, but we can give them the lens to appreciate the richness that is already there. -- Lucy Calkins • As teachers, it is our job to validate the lives of our students by honoring their thoughts, feelings, and daily experiences. -- Janet Elliott

8. IDEAS: Process • With students create a web for “fear” or any other emotion/topic. On the spokes, list things people fear as students contribute. • Ask students to make their own “fear” webs in their notebooks. • Have students circle one that they want to write about. • Have students do a quick write (3-5 minutes) on the “fear” they selected. • Allow students to share what they wrote. • Ask students to record any additional ideas from the share session on their “Ideas” page.

9. IDEAS: More Webs Have students “process ideas” from the previous slide using the following:

10. IDEAS: Lists Continue having students “process ideas” from slide 9:

11. IDEAS: Topic Cards • Give each student a laminated “topic card.” • 2. Students write about what’s on the card for 2-3 • minutes. • 3. Students pass their card to the next person, • and repeat step 2. • Repeat steps 2-3 four or five times. • 5. Then have students select their favorite quick • write and finish writing it. • Allow students time to share before and after • step 5.

12. IDEAS: Give me “5” GREAT BEGINNING OF THE YEAR ACTIVITY: Have students trace around their hand and write five things (one on each finger) they they want others to know about them or five things that don’t think others know about them.

13. IDEAS: Pass the Photo • As students enter the room, hand each of them an • unusual photo cut from magazine ads. • After studying the photos, students begin writing • stories about them. • After three minutes, students pass their photo and • partial draft to the person on their left. • Each student studies the new photo, reads what has • already been written, and continues writing the • story. • This process continues for about five rounds. • Papers are returned to the original author. • Students get in groups and read their stories. • Each group votes on the best story and reads it to • the class. • For homework, students can finish or revise their • draft.

14. IDEAS: Maps • favorite place maps • job maps • life maps

15. IDEAS: Mementos/Artifacts My journal is the heart of my writing. There I record dreams, memories, funny happenings and wild ideas. Free to play, I write in different directions and colors; I draw, I tape in leaves, notes, boarding passes. From such compost, poems, stories, and even novels grow. --George Ella Lyon

16. IDEAS: Mementos/Artifacts Mementos serve as a catalyst for our memories. -- Janet Elliot Collect mementos and record the memories.

17. IDEAS: Mementos/Artifacts “PHOTOGRAPHS are fragile paper timeships dusted with information.” –Photographer Joel Meyerowitz

18. IDEAS: Sketches SKETCHES are quick and simple. When writers sketch or draw, they think more deeply about that person or object. Sketch a neighbor, friend, teacher, family member, favorite places, or objects. MENTOR TEXT: Max’s Logbook, by Marissa Moss

19. IDEAS: Wonderings WHAT DO YOU WONDER ABOUT? Why are bubbles round? How did the zebra get its stripes? What is a black hole? What is the Bermuda Triangle?

20. IDEAS: Wonderings Have students write down three things they wonder about. Have them do this daily for several days to get in the mind-set of wondering. You can use one of the many question-and-answer books like How Come? by Kahty Wollard (1993) that shows how questions can lead to writing and even research.

21. IDEAS: Newspapers and Magazines • Clip individual words, phrases, • headings, cartoons, quotes, • pictures, or articles that • interest/irritate you and glue/tape it • into your notebook. • Write a personal response related to • your clipping.

22. IDEAS: Art • View various paintings, sculptures, • etc. Then record thoughts, feelings, • interpretations. • Give students clay or play dough to • mold their own art (make a paper • collage, do ink blots, or any other • art activity). Then have them write • about their creations.

23. IDEAS: Music • Have students write/sketch what they are thinking as they listen to various types of music. • -- What does the song/music remind you of? • -- How does it make you feel? • -- How do the lyrics impact you? What is the • message? • -- When sketching to music, what does it • cause you to draw: wavy lines, circles, • jagged lines?

24. OBSERVATIONS Get in the habit of quietly observing and experiencing the world around you. Trust your five senses to lead you to ideas, which are everywhere, just waiting for you to connect with them—and make them your own.

25. OBSERVATIONS As we develop a greater awareness of our surroundings and record the details, we gather great material to use in future writing. SPRINGBOARD: Seinlanguage by Jerry Seinfeld

26. OBSERVATIONS: Nature • Have students divide a piece of paper into fourths and to categorize their observations into sight, touch, smell, and sound. • 2.Take students outside to record their observations (no talking) or make this a homework assignment.

27. OBSERVATIONS: Nature • Crawdad Creek (Sanders, 2002) • Snowflake Bentley (Martin (1998) • Snowflakes in Photographs (Bentley, 2000) • Sketching Outdoors in Winter (Arnosky, 1988) • Nature All Year Long (Leslie, 2002)

28. OBSERVATIONS: People • Nothing Ever Happens on 90th Street (Schotter, 1997) • Have students take “people notes” when they go to the mall, movie theater, grocery store, hair salon, etc. • Scribbled notes written about a seatmate on an airplane: BIG hockey fan—unbridled enthusiasm for EVERYTHING. Very, very fun guy. Dirty fingernails.

29. OBSERVATIONS: Listening • WHAT DO YOU HEAR? • Listen in on snippets of conversation (with discretion, of course). • Sit in a public place (restaurant, mall, library, locker, cafeteria line, football bleachers, etc.) and listen to “snatches of talk” the “cadences of ordinary talk.” -- Ralph Fletcher

30. OBSERVATIONS: Listening Janet Elliot wrote the following two-voice poem after hearing an argument among employees in a fast-food restaurant.

31. OBSERVATIONS: Listening • WORDS, WORDS, WORDS • agreement • ARGUMENT • compliment • CRITICISM • soothing • IRRITATING • humorous • ANGRY • eloquent • CRUDE • helpful • HURTING • A gift • or OR • A CURSE • words, WORDS, • words, WORDS, • words, WORDS!

32. LITERATURE SPRINGBOARDS Literature has an impact on readers in different ways. It connects us to past experiences, stirs our emotions, and causes us to react, wonder, or chuckle. -- Janet Elliott

33. LITERATURE SPRINGBOARDS You Have to Write (Wong, 2002) Helps writers realize that their daily lives are full of rich writing material. Excerpt:No one else can say what you have seen, and heard, and felt today . . . . Write about fights. Write about holes in your socks, your grandmother cracking her knuckles, your father snoring all night long.”

34. LITERATURE SPRINGBOARDS Share powerful examples of memoir with your students and discuss the differences between memory (recalls what happened) and a memoir (includes the reactions, thoughts, and emotions that accompanied that memory). Writing a Life: Teaching Memoir to Sharpen Insight, Shape Meaning—and Triumph over Tests (Bomer, 2005)

35. LITERATURE SPRINGBOARDS MENTOR/ANCHOR TEXTS—use your favorite exemplary texts to teach students about various types of writing and refer to these texts throughout the year.

36. LITERATURE SPRINGBOARDS MENTOR TEXTS for Teaching Memoir CHAPTER BOOKS: Marshfield Dreams: When I Was a Kid by Ralph Fletcher Looking Back: A book of Memories by Lois Lowry A Girl from Yamhill by Beverly Cleary Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio by Peg Kehret When I Was Your Age: Original Stories about Growing Up (Vol. 2) edited by Amy Ehrlich Boy: Tales of Childhood by Roald Dahl But I’ll be Back Again by Cynthia Rylant Knots in my Yo-Yo String, by Jerry Spinelli Many of these you can just use one or two chapters.

37. LITERATURE SPRINGBOARDS MENTOR TEXTS for Teaching Memoir PICTURE BOOKS: When I Was Young In the Mountains by Cynthia Rylant White Water by Jonathan and Aaron London Fireflies by Julie Brinckloe The Summer My Father Was Ten by Pat Brisson The Keeping Quilt, by Patricia Polacco

38. LITERATURE SPRINGBOARDS MENTOR TEXTS for Teaching Memoir PICTURE BOOKS (Sensory Connections): “The Long Closet,” by Jane Yolen (from When I Was Your Age) The Hickory Chair, by Lisa Rowe Fraustino Ma Dear’s Aprons, by Patricia McKissack

39. LITERATURE SPRINGBOARDS MENTOR TEXTS for Teaching Memoir HOLIDAY MEMORIES/TRADITIONS: The Christmas House, by Ann Turner One Candle, by Eve Bunting Chase’s Calendar of Events: http://mhprofessional.com/category/?cat=3

40. LITERATURE SPRINGBOARDS WRITING ABOUT NAMES: “My Name,” from The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros My Name is Maria, by Alma Flor Ada My Name is Yoon, by Helen Recorvits The Name Jar, by Yangsook Choi Gooney Bird Green, by Lois Lowry (Chapter 2) Angel Child, Dragon Child, by Michele Maria Surat

41. LITERATURE SPRINGBOARDS WRITING ABOUT SPECIAL PLACES: All the Places to Love, by Patricia MacLachlan Quiet Place, by Douglas Wood The Secret Place, by Eve Bunting Hey, Al, by Author Yorinks

42. LITERATURE SPRINGBOARDS WRITING ABOUT SCHOOL: Thank You, Mr. Falker, by Patricia Polacco Sister Anne’s Hands, by Marybeth Lorbiecki It Happens to Everyone, by Bernice Myers

43. LITERATURE SPRINGBOARDS WRITING ABOUT PETS: My Cats Nick and Nora, by Isabelle Harper Nibbles and Me, by Elizabeth Taylor The Tenth Good Thing About Barney, by Judith Viorst

44. LITERATURE SPRINGBOARDS WRITING ABOUT FAMILY: The Pain and the Great One, by Judy Blume I Remember Papa, by Helen Ketteman and Greg Shed The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant The Memory String, by Eve Bunting Sunshine Home, by Eve Bunting

45. LITERATURE SPRINGBOARDS WRITING ABOUT FAMILY: My Rotten, Redheaded Older Brother, by P. Polacco Miss Rumphius, by Barbara Cooney My Great Aunt Arizona, by Gloria Houston “Always Wear Clean Underwear!” and Other Ways Parents Say “I Love You,” by Marc Gellman

46. LITERATURE SPRINGBOARDS WRITING ABOUT FRIENDS: Rosie and Michael, by Judith Viorst Enemy Pie, by Derek Munson Freedom Summer by Deborah Wiles The Other Side, by Woodson and Lewis Mrs. Katz and Tush, by Patricia Polacco Roxaboxen, by Barbara Cooney

47. LITERATURE SPRINGBOARDS WRITING ABOUT FEELINGS & MOODS: The Way I Feel Sometimes, by Beatrice Schenk de Regniers What Are You So Grumpy About? by Tom Lichtenheld Once When I Was Scared by Helena Clare Pittman Courage, by Bernard Waber Today was a Terrible Day, by Patricia Reilly Giff Ira Sleeps Over, by Bernard Waber

48. LITERATURE SPRINGBOARDS PLAYING WITH WORDS: Fighting Words, by David Small Max’s Words, by Kate Banks The Boy Who Loved Words, by Roni Schotter

49. LITERATURE SPRINGBOARDS PLAYING WITH PATTERNS: Fortunately, by Remy Charlip The Important Book, by Margaret Wise Brown Things that are Most in the World, by Judi Barrett Texas Night Before Christmas, James Rice Sylvester and the Magic Pebble (circular story—any story by the author), by William Steig

50. LITERATURE SPRINGBOARDS IMITATING POETRY: Poems by Adolescents and Adults: A Thematic Collection for Middle School and High School Any of the “Teen Ink” Series Any poetry by Mattie Stepanek Paint Me Like I Am, teen poems from Writerscorps The D- Poems of Jeremy Bloom, by Gordon Korman Almost Forever (novel in verse)