<p> Going Inside the</p><p>Writer’s Notebook </p><p>Alan Wright 1 Education Consultant ALVIC Educational Consultancy A Writer’s Notebook is not limited to print. Students may include sketches, photos, diagrams, artefacts, or other visual representations – any material that represents the writer’s thinking or feeds the writing process.</p><p>Alan Wright 2 Education Consultant ALVIC Educational Consultancy The writer’s notebook becomes a tool that students are able to use to capture the things they notice, observe, wonder or think about. Entries in the notebook will hopefully be varied and valuable to the writer. </p><p>Most commonly sighted entries in young writer’s notebooks include:</p><p> Assorted memories and personal narratives  Observations of things happening in the world around them.  Descriptions of people  Descriptions of places  Opinions  Assorted Wonderings and questions  Artefacts such as photographs and mementoes  Wishes  Family stories  Information about hobbies  Information about animals  Writing craft ideas gathered from writing lessons  Lists –on a range of topics, ideas  Poems –their own and those of poets they admire  Quotes  Extracts of writing that appeal  Newspaper articles  Cards, tickets, brochures</p><p>The first step in launching the notebook is to personalize the covers of the notebook. This is an important first step in stamping individuality on this special place in which writing ideas will be collected. </p><p>At the beginning of the year the memories we assist students to awaken need to be captured in their notebooks. We can also stir up memories when we use literature. In those early days of the year when we read to students from literature that has strong connections to family issues and experiences we provide rich fodder for possible writing ideas.</p><p>Another starting point is developing a list of potential topics or ideas to feed the writing that is anticipated. This could be called –‘Possible Writing Topics” or “Things I Can Write About” These lists, once started, need regular ‘feeding’ or updating. This encourages students to be on the lookout for potential writing ideas. They need to be captured before they escape our memories. A few minutes every week, harvesting topics reinforces the habit of seeking out ideas. </p><p>This way the notebook remains a healthy repository of ideas because of regular ‘feeding.’ When introducing topic lists, teachers need to share their own list ideas. </p><p>Alan Wright 3 Education Consultant ALVIC Educational Consultancy By doing this students are frequently alerted to writing ideas they might otherwise overlook. </p><p>My List includes the following ideas Taking photographs Beach outings My first job Fishing in the creek First house memories Growing rhubarb Saving water Supermarket pain Walking through Brooklyn neighbourhoods Music memories</p><p>Alan Wright 4 Education Consultant ALVIC Educational Consultancy The Writers Notebook: Looking From the Inside Out</p><p>What Goes In What Stays Out Daily entries and seed The larger writing piece ideas. Writing plans, lifted from the notebook illustrating ideas. and written/typed Practice of strategies and Additional revisions the techniques for writing. author uses to further improve and refine the writing Collecting ideas and Editing the author thoughts around a topic. undertakes on the draft Experimenting with leads, writing prior to final endings etc publication Artifacts that nurture Publishing plans that potential writing ideas outline layout presentation Examples of effective Any final illustrations, writing gained from maps, charts that support reading showing patterns the writing. and techniques Revision strategies- trying Final version of the writing out different things for a piece which is presented in piece of writing. a published form. Editing notes and ideas for effective editing.</p><p>Alan Wright Education Consultant ALVIC Educational Consultancy</p><p>Alan Wright 5 Education Consultant ALVIC Educational Consultancy The Writers Notebook: EXPECTATIONS</p><p>Students Can Be Teachers Can Be Expected To…. Expected To…. Write daily in their notebooks and at Provide time each day during writing home as well throughout the week workshop for students to write. Harvest ideas and topics from their Explicitly teach writing strategies as life, their reading and natural ways to discover writing topics. curiosity for the notebook Make decisions about their writing Conduct conferences that intentions on a daily basis. encourage the writer to think more deeply about their writing. Try strategies from mini lessons, Teach mini lessons that provide conferences as well as working on daily opportunities for students to their own ideas become better writers. Respect the integrity of the Have his or her notebook in class on notebook by taking care of it and a daily basis to model and share having it accessible in class. aspects of their own work as a writer. Teachers will respect the integrity of student notebooks they collect by not losing them, or writing in them. Practice the strategies that effective Actively teach ( within the context of writers know about conventional writing) the generalizations that grammar and spelling so that their apply to spelling and grammatical writing remains ‘reader friendly.’ conventions. Discover how writing helps them Discover how his or her life is communicate more effectively thus enriched by the writing of every enriching their lives. member of the classroom ‘writing community.’</p><p>Alan Wright Education Consultant ALVIC Educational Consultancy</p><p>The very act of maintaining a Writer’s notebook provides so much that can be used to teach students about the process of writing. Consider what a valuable resource you are creating if you embrace the idea. What a powerful message is sent to your students about you, -the writer, reader and risk taker. Alan Wright 6 Education Consultant ALVIC Educational Consultancy I have recently browsed through one of my favourite little books. “Breathing In Breathing Out –Keeping a Writer’s Notebook by Ralph Fletcher and documented some of Ralph’s pertinent messages about keeping a writer’s notebook. Ralph begins with the following statement:</p><p>Keeping a notebook is the single best way I know to survive as a writer. It encourages you to pay attention to your world, inside and out. It serves as a container to keep all the seeds you gather until you are ready to plant them. It gives you a quiet place to begin writing.</p><p>Your notebook is a room of your own. It encourages you to inhabit the first person pronoun and without apology. It provides a safe place for you to ask: What do I notice? What do I care about? What moves the deepest part of me? What do I want to remember for the rest of my life? What do I want to write about? How might I start?</p><p>It provides a place to develop the habits of a writer.</p><p>My notebook is big enough to conjure up all the concentric circles of my writing world.</p><p>Your notebook can help you live in a state of creative readiness; sensitive to ideas and inspiration in the same way a piece of photographic paper is sensitive to light. Regular notebook writing acts as a reminder to keep all your senses alert.</p><p>Writers are list makers. You might keep a variety of lists in your notebook.</p><p>Some writers use their notebooks as a sketchbook where they draw what they encounter in the physical world. If you wish to sketch to capture a gesture, a scene, a grimace, you may be better to get a notebook without lines.</p><p>Use your notebook to collect lines from other writers as well as to record your own. Think of your notebook as a holding pattern for intriguing or unfinished lines until you’re ready to use them.</p><p>My notebooks are filled with talk. I must have developed a sweet tooth for conversation. I believe conversation is a critical element when it </p><p>Alan Wright 7 Education Consultant ALVIC Educational Consultancy comes to revealing character or conflict. Dip into any notebook and you will find the writer has recorded a wealth of talk.</p><p>Writers reopen old boxes, pick at old wounds, return to old themes and obsessions. Most of us find the past the steadiest, most reliable supplier of material for our writing. Memories that show up in my notebooks are a potpourri of poignant moments, everyday life, and recorded odd facts from the past. </p><p>Some writers claim they never revisit their notebooks. But most of us go back incessantly, rummaging, reading, looking for- what? For me. I usually don’t know what I’m looking for until I find it. And then: aha! Rereading is like rolling up my sleeves and immersing my arms up to the elbows in hot particulars. </p><p>If your notebook doesn’t reflect the marrow of your life –at least some of the time –what good is it?</p><p>As you start paying attention to the physical world, try to push beyond the sight into other less glamorous senses: smell, taste, touch. </p><p>Writing in my notebook, I discovered that I could take real pleasure in what I put down on paper, could sustain my spirits on the enjoyment derived from working my craft. </p><p>I hope Ralph Fletcher’s messages inspire you. Inspire you sufficiently to undertake a leap of faith and become a writer for yourself and a model for your students. </p><p>Alan Wright Education Consultant ALVIC Educational Consultancy</p><p>STARTERS- Lists Can Provide Writing Ideas!</p><p>List ten things you want to do before you turn 21</p><p>List ten things you want to do this year</p><p>List ten things you want for your birthday that don’t cost any money</p><p>List ten things you believe the planet could do without</p><p>Alan Wright 8 Education Consultant ALVIC Educational Consultancy List ten things you are not the least bit interested in</p><p>List ten things grandparents should never say</p><p>List ten things that are ugly</p><p>If you lived in a garden what would you be?</p><p>Bare feet are good – Explore why</p><p>Being five</p><p>What is your biggest fear?</p><p>If you were an item of clothing what would you be?</p><p>When I turn 14 I’ll……</p><p>Write about one or more of these:  Toes  A bad habit you have  Sunsets  Being young  Being old  Being angry  Being sorry  Dancing  Running</p><p>Senses I smell like… I sound like… I taste like…. I hear…</p><p>Write about the first book you remember reading </p><p>Create a Life Map to show events in your life so far </p><p>Write an entry about one of the items on your Life Map. </p><p>Write another entry from a topic off your Life Map. (Homework) </p><p>Write an entry over any topic of your choosing. Write about your personal opinion </p><p>Write a response to a book you are currently reading </p><p>Alan Wright 9 Education Consultant ALVIC Educational Consultancy Write about the meaning behind a treasured object - what memories do you associate with that object? </p><p>Make a plan for a memoir piece</p><p>Write a memoir including sensory details.</p><p>Make a list of your personal choosing</p><p>Persuasive Writing - Choose an issue that is important to you, and write a persuasive paper following the format we learned in class. (Intro. with a hook and explanation of the problem, Body with examples and facts to back up your P.O.V., Conclusion that suggests what can be done and a call to action. Write at least 50 words describing a moment when you were jealous of someone. Try to use at least one of the methods of sentence combining and figurative language. </p><p>Write at least 50 words that could serve as the beginning of a short story about someone being pressured into carrying out a harmless prank. Use figurative language, magic threes, and one unfamiliar word.</p><p>Write a piece on the lines "I know everything," or "I don't know everything." </p><p>Write a poem about your name. Tell about names you have wished for, fantasies you have had, and "personal creations" (e.g., mud pies, lizard burials). Then come to terms with your name at the end of the poem.</p><p>Notebook Questions</p><p>What does the writers notebook mean to my students? </p><p>When discussing notebooks before the writing process are the students more engaged in the writing? </p><p>If the students could write about any topic, what would be the most popular area? </p><p>How do I assess how engaged the students are in their notebook writings? Alan Wright 10 Education Consultant ALVIC Educational Consultancy Will interviewing students be a meaningful way of assessing the level of engagement in writing?</p><p>Are the students connecting to text and the craft of writing in their notebooks?* </p><p>Do the students enjoy making entries in their notebooks in the classroom? </p><p>How can I make notebook writing more meaningful in the classroom?* </p><p>What is my attitude to student taking their notebooks home to add entries?</p><p>How do I help facilitate students to relate writing to their personal experiences?* </p><p>Do students write more when they have greater ownership of topics? </p><p>How do I support students to harvest writing ideas for their notebooks?</p><p>Extract from: ”A Journey to Publication Using Writer's Notebooks” by Laura Michel</p><p>It All Begins With a Seed</p><p>In order for our students to experience the entire writing process, we must not stop with notebook writing. We can do incredible mini-lessons and our students can write beautiful entries, but is that enough? I don't think so. Joanne Hindley talks about this in her insightful book In the Company of Children. She says that it is "important for students to learn how to move out of their notebooks -- to experience what it is like to stick to one piece of writing, to imagine what that piece could become, and to experiment with revising and editing" (Hindley, 1996). Students can write powerful entries in their notebooks, but if no one ever sees them finished, then what is the purpose of writing? We need to give our students the opportunity and the experience of writing for an audience, Alan Wright 11 Education Consultant ALVIC Educational Consultancy and holding a published piece of writing or giving it to a loved one, and saying "I wrote this."</p><p>It begins with a seed idea, an entry or group of entries in the notebook that the student wants to explore further. Therefore, the "seed" refers to the tiny beginning that we will nurture and feed until it grows into a perfect flower. I always ask my students to think about this choice carefully because many times children will pick something out without giving it enough thought. I model this for my students because it is a very important part of the writing process, and I want them to be conscious of their decision making.</p><p>We look for seed ideas that are important to us, and that we want to spend time crafting into a finished piece of writing. Sometimes it will be an entry that the student has revisited a lot, and sometimes it will be one entry that calls out to the student in some way. Shelley Harwayne discusses this process in Lasting Impressions, and she says that students must ask themselves questions when they are moving from their notebooks to a project. She says they should ask themselves, "What stands out? Of all my entries, what can I imagine spending a good deal of time on? What deserves my attention?" (Harwayne, 1992)</p><p>It often helps to invite students to reread many of their entries, and to experiment with something they have written. I often tell my students to pick one line that they like in their notebook and put it at the top of a new page. Then I tell them to write from that one line, or even one word, to see if that helps them form a seed. This is especially helpful to those students who may say, "I can't find anything good." Lucy Calkins says "sometimes it's not a whole entry, even, that catches my attention. Sometimes it's a few lines, part of an entry" (Calkins, 1994). It can be anything, and we have to trust that the entry that our students choose is the right one for them. Sometimes we, as teachers, feel the urge to tell our students which entry we like the best, but we must resist. They choose it for a reason, and we have to honor their decision.</p><p>Once the decision is made, I ask my students to tag their seed idea with a bookmark so that I can make copies of them later. Joanne Hindley talks about her own process for having kids choose a seed idea in In the Company of Children. She says that she usually chooses a small group of students to begin a project first, and then starts small groups of kids in "waves" so that everyone is at a different stage in their path to publication. She likes to do it this way so that the first children to start can model their processes for the rest of the class, and so that no small group needs all the attention at a given time (Hindley, 1996). It is a great idea, and one that I would suggest teachers try for themselves. Alan Wright 12 Education Consultant ALVIC Educational Consultancy Your class will guide you to the best ways to start projects, and it may be different each year for each group of children.</p><p>Nurturing The Seed With Mini-Lessons</p><p>Once the children have their seed idea, and it is photocopied onto another piece of paper, we say that it is "out" of the notebook. I always have my students put their notebooks away for a while as we nurture the seed and move toward publication. At this point it is helpful for the students to use a folder or a section of a binder to work on their topics, because they will be using other pieces of paper and we don't want them to get "lost." Shelley Harwayne suggests having students fold down the page of their notebook to remind them that they are only working on that project (Harwayne, 1992). No matter what method you use, this is the time for the children to live with their topics, to gather more information, and to shape their entries into a certain type of writing.</p><p>We need to do mini-lessons to support our students as they live with their seed idea. Many times, I invite students to gather more information about their topic, reread their entries, try a certain genre, or read what they have written to a friend. Shelley Harwayne (as cited in Hindley, 1996), states that "students need to be reminded of all the purposes writing serves. Once a writer has decided on the purpose of a project, she can more easily imagine the possible forms it could take." We need to help kids make choices by modeling, explaining, and teaching in mini-lessons. Lucy Calkins suggests that there are four types of mini-lessons: classroom procedures, writing strategies, craft, and skills (Calkins, 1997). When students are living with a seed idea, we should do mini-lessons primarily on writing strategies and craft, helping the children to gather ideas and form a draft. Once they have an audience and a draft, they can begin the process of revising.</p><p>Nancie Atwell says, "I've learned that when students don't revise their writing, it's usually because they don't know how" (Atwell, 1998). We need to show our students how to revise by revising our own work in front of them, and giving them strategies to revise independently. By making changes to our writing publicly, we show students that it is all right to cross out, to move sentences around and even to cut the paper apart and tape it back together in a different order. We can use student writing to help us show revision strategies as well, asking a student to explain what they did to make their piece better. Some strategies that help students revise are to take a short draft and expand it, predict a reader's questions, or rework a lead or ending (Calkins, 1994). Along with these strategies, I always encourage my students to use other Alan Wright 13 Education Consultant ALVIC Educational Consultancy authors as mentors for their drafts. I teach them to look to other writers for advice, like looking at lots of poetry if they are drafting a poem, or reading books about butterflies if that is what their piece is about. Great literature should always be used as a tool for revision.</p><p>Nancie Atwell teaches older students, but she writes about some excellent tools she teaches her students in the Writing Workshop. She teaches students to use carets, arrows, and asterisks, and to highlight, circle, and even to cross out. When students are fearful of crossing out because it will mess up their page, we need to give them "visual proof that this is what writers do" (Atwell, 1998). We need to show them that it is hard to throw away some of the words you have written so carefully, but that doing so will make us better writers. Mini-lessons can accomplish this through direct instruction, modeling, and demonstration.</p><p>We can make charts for the classroom that list our revision strategies, adding new ones as we discover them. We can suggest that our children listen to their drafts and see what they hear. Do they hear a song, or a letter? We can ask them to use a "snapshot" technique, showing what they want to say instead of simply telling it, or we can ask them to "explode a moment," stretching the exciting parts of their stories (Harper, 1997). "No one revision strategy is right for every child, and certainly no strategy could be right for every child on a given day, but it gives children a repertoire of strategies from which they can draw" (Calkins, 1994). Just as a piece of clay is molded into a shape, a child's draft begins to take on a shape of its own.</p><p>Alan Wright 14 Education Consultant ALVIC Educational Consultancy</p>