There is, rightly so, much ado about summer reading. Conversations and plans are made around helping students to continue reading all summer long. But what about the writing?
Our Two Writing Teachers blog has certainly addressed the issue of summer writing before. Stacey Shubitz talked about Closing the Summer Writing Gap and guest author Julieanne Harmatz shared fantastic ways to encourage summer writers last year. Anna Gratz Cockerille blogged about independent summer writing projects for upper grade students. Dana Murphy shared ideas for summer writing for some of our youngest students. Recently, Deb wrote about summer writing and invented a hashtag to keep our writers connected through social media this summer: #KidsWritingLife.
As a third grade teacher, I worked hard this year to establish a community of writers and bloggers who share our stories. With only a few weeks left with my students, how could I motivate and inspire them to keep writing this summer and stay connected as a community?
A new writer’s notebook, especially designed for summer, was the first place to start. But for some of my students, a blank notebook would be overwhelming. Without mini-lessons and ideas on what to put into the notebook, a new summer writing notebook could surely remain as blank and pristine as the sand at the beach in the early morning hours. How could I give them ideas that they could really try in a way that wouldn’t feel scripted or take away their ownership of their notebooks?
Enter QR codes! QR codes can link to websites, video, images, and audio. I knew just what I wanted to link to for my writers this summer. Amy Ludwig VanDerwater’s blogs, The Poem Farm and Sharing Our Notebooks are absolute treasures for educators and students. Last year, educator and writer Kimberley Moran inspired an idea to create a summer edition of Sharing Our Notebooks called Try This. The site filled with so many incredible ideas for writing! Last year, I showed this site to my class and shared the bookmarks with them, but I was disappointed it seemed no one used it over the summer. I needed to find a different way to show my current students the many awesome ideas on this site that would inspire them to write.
Here’s what I did: I created a Google Drive Folder called Summer Notebooks. I read through the “Try This” section of the Sharing Our Notebooks site and selected the writing ideas I thought would work the best for my students. I created a QR code for each idea that I selected. I put the QR codes on sheets of labels (Avery 5160) so students could easily stick it into a page of their notebook. (All of these can be accessed for use in my Summer Notebooks Google Drive Folder, linked above.) I didn’t put any information on the label other than the QR code for the surprise factor of wondering what the QR code is before you scan it! (Drawback: when you are working with students, you will have to be really organized to make sure they each take a QR code from each sheet because they won’t be able to tell if they have already since all the QR codes look the same! I thought of putting numbers next to the QR code but didn’t want kids to feel they had to go in order.)
While I was doing this, I was inspired to try another type of QR code. What if I could talk to my students and share some of my stories and give them writing prompts too? I used the app Audio Boom to do just that! Audio Boom lets you easily create a QR code for your audio recording. I put my audio recording QR codes also on sheets of labels for students to put inside their notebooks. Some of the prompts I gave were about being brave, using your senses, birthdays, and creating your perfect summer menu.
When I introduce this to my students, I plan on also showing them how I labeled certain pages in my notebook with topics I want to make sure I write about this summer. Students can come up with some ideas that are relevant in their lives- camp, family trips, or other topics they care about. Marcie Rush posted an awesome Slice of Life this week all about writer’s notebooks and summer writing! Marcie shared how one of the teachers she works with, Mary Ann Lana, created a Padlet of resources, including videos for notebook ideas. I plan to share a video about writer’s notebook ideas from Mary Ann’s Padlet with my students as I introduce the summer notebook.
To help families understand QR codes and to make sure they have a QR code reader, I will send home a letter explaining QR codes and how to get the app. I put a mystery question in a QR code on the letter. I told students if they bring back the correct answer, they will get $10 in Class Dojo dollars. I’m hoping this motivates families to get the app and use the QR codes this summer!
In my post Breathing Life Back Into Notebooks, I confessed that I haven’t always used my writer’s notebook as a writer. This summer, I really want to push myself to use the notebook as a tool. I created my own summer notebook with the same QR codes I gave the students and I’m going to challenge myself to write each day.
I hope to write a follow up post later in June with pictures and samples of what my students create for their summer notebooks! How are you helping your students get ready for a summer full of writing?
TWO WRITING TEACHERS 
I conquer with all of the ‘Wow!’s. This is a post that I have book marked. I will read it over and over to troll all of the great ideas and share it with others to encourage and excite both teachers and students with new energy to writing notebooks. Thanks, Kathleen!
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So interesting Kathleen!
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Thank you for sharing this great way to use Audio Boom! I love how the students will have an opportunity to hear you speak to them. Thanks for sharing!!
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Wow! Awesome!
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I can’t wait for my third graders to get extra inspiration in their summer writing notebooks. I have added them to my notebook too, as I have to get back on the writing notebook horse!
Thanks for all you do to promote writing!
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This is awesome Kathleen! I can’t wait to see what your students create!!!!
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Anything for teens? I have a 14 yr old how use to LOVE writing and still does it some ~~ but after the demise of our writing club she lost her zeal for it…. would love to see her doing something like this!
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Hi Sheila! I think this idea could work for teens. The writing prompts from Amy’s site are rich and as an adult, they will give me a lot to write about! I would definitely share Amy’s blog with her.
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Once again you’ve set the bar higher! I guess all these bells and whistles are what it takes to get kids to write during the summer (or anytime)…to compete with all the other distractions in their lives! But thank goodness we have you to show us how to do it in style and with the intention of “lifting” kids’ writing skills and love of writing. You are creator extraordinare, once again.
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Thank you Barbara, my friend and cheerleader! Sometimes I think something “new” helps fire up motivation and enthusiasm. My students were really happy making these notebooks and I’m hopeful they might keep them writing this summer!
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I really love this, Kathleen! What a fun way to keep kids writing over the summer!
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This is such a wonderful idea! Could you use different colored labels to help make sure that every student gets the entire set of QR codes?
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Great idea! I couldn’t figure out how to change the color of the QR codes. Do they make labels in different colors? I always buy the bulk mailing labels in white. I like the suggestion! I was also thinking I could have put a summer themed graphic next to the QR code to make them different from each other but ran out of time to do that!
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I like the ways you have chosen to use QR codes with your students. I especially love the idea of linking them to Audio Boom, which is something I had never heard of before but must check out, since I think that will be a game changer.
I look forward to your updates about how getting the notebooks ready goes and how it works out over the summer. Thanks for this wonderful post, Kathleen.
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I love Audio Boom! I used it earlier in the year with my 3rd graders. I had the kids describe what we do in different areas of the classroom and record it in Audio Boom. We made QR codes for that and placed them in the corresponding area of the classroom. Parents scanned the QR code to hear the kids talk about the classroom at back to school night. There are so many possibilities!
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Kathleen, this is amazing! Thank you for sharing this incredible idea! The “mystery” behind the QR code will definitely motivate so many of my students. I think I may also try to get them involved by thinking up a summer writing topic and typing/taping it in Seesaw. A QR code can then be generated with their own voices! Wow!
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I am also thinking about how this is wonderful beyond summer – for an independent notebook…
Thank you again – I just linked here in my sidebar over at Sharing Our Notebooks… xx
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Wowee! This is so cool and so generous of you to share, Kathleen. I, too, like the mystery of QR codes and will absolutely share this right now. Happy summer writing to us all! xo
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Oh. My. Goodness. This is just straight up brilliant. I cannot wait to hear how this goes Kathleen. Fingers crossed.
Like you, I have summer notebook goals. I’d love to chat about those.
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Wow!! Just what I needed to read. I know my kids will LOVE the magic of QR codes and we just got word that they can keep there iPads for the summer!! I so appreciate you including all the links. Know I’ll be busy making labels this weekend and that you’ve helped kids in VA to write more this summer!!
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