Writer's Notebook
Our Writers' Notebooks have evolved over time. Since I first came back from a Deb Sukana inservice about 5 years ago, I've loved them and loved seeing the kids love using them!
This year (2011), our notebook is divided into two parts: Ideas and Drafts. Each book has two tabs indicating 'Ideas' and 'Drafts' and these are post it-like stickers that you can move which has been handy as the kids fill up the book. Most have run out of drafts room in the 9 weeks of school so far and we've been able to move the drafts tab backward so they've got more room. One student has just about finished her first book (prolific writer) but we've got extra books for them to move on to when these have filled up.
One of the best tips I picked up at that first Writer's Notebook inservice was that as a teacher I should model with my own writer's notebook. I quite enjoyed putting mine together during the holidays about 5 years ago and I still use it every year to model ideas pages. The gallery below has photos of a few pages.
Senior Version
Middle Version
Back in the classroom with grade 3/4 this year (2016) and one of the first things I spent time setting up was Writer's Notebook. I must admit I had way too much fun putting it all together.
This year we've gone for a 'kit' type feel. A big black document wallet envelops the scrap book we're using as the actual notebook, which allows us to tuck a draft book and spelling resource inside.
New drafting and help sheets were created and these were laminated and made to flip over the text of the draft book (photos show it better than I'm explaining!)
I've been a bit more prescribed this year with the actual notebook pages - giving the kids a pro forma to work with for their seeds. I really wanted to scaffold these kids well as they were new to writer's notebook. We'll drop the pro forma later when we're all off and racing
As usual, I made my own writer's notebook to model for the kids. It was a Sunday afternoon's work and quite enjoyable. I also stuck samples from notebooks I'd done for other grades in the back.
This year we've gone for a 'kit' type feel. A big black document wallet envelops the scrap book we're using as the actual notebook, which allows us to tuck a draft book and spelling resource inside.
New drafting and help sheets were created and these were laminated and made to flip over the text of the draft book (photos show it better than I'm explaining!)
I've been a bit more prescribed this year with the actual notebook pages - giving the kids a pro forma to work with for their seeds. I really wanted to scaffold these kids well as they were new to writer's notebook. We'll drop the pro forma later when we're all off and racing
As usual, I made my own writer's notebook to model for the kids. It was a Sunday afternoon's work and quite enjoyable. I also stuck samples from notebooks I'd done for other grades in the back.
Junior Version - 'Seed' books
Working in the Grade 2 room this year (2014) we've done a junior version of Writers' Notebooks called 'Seed Books' . The major focus has been to have the children thinking about and collecting 'seeds' for what they could write about. Then developing vocabulary that they might need when writing about these ideas. As with the older kids, I spent some time creating my own seed book as a model for the kids. Didn't take long. Sample pages below.
