Notebooks

Literacydetails’ Post reminded me of a conversation I had with the student who inspired the SOLSC. He confided in me about a week or so ago. Here’s a close approximate of the conversation:

I walked into the hallway and saw C standing at his backpack shaking his head. “What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Ms. Shubitz, I never finish my writer’s notebooks. I always leave a few pages blank at the end of an old one when I started a new one. I don’t know why I do that.”

I smiled. I knew why.

“I do the same thing C,” I replied.

His eyes widened, “You do!??!”

“Mmm-hmmm,” I said. “You and me: we’re alike in that way. I can never use a notebook ’til the very end. Too scary. What if you run out of pages when you are ready to write an amazing story or see something that you’ve got to write down. Then what?”

“I know exactly what you mean!” He said. “I once had to write on the back cover of a notebook.”

MORAL OF THE STORY: If there are a few blank pages at the end of a kids WN and it looks like they never finish a notebook, perhaps the reason is that they’re nervous they’ll run out of space when something important is about to happen. I think C is living like a writer, don’t you?