Focus Lessons: A Review and Giveaway!
Reading Ralph Fletcher’s newest book, Focus Lessons, revealed memories of my childhood much the way photos can be revealed in a pan of solution. Slowly, vividly, and magically.
Category Archive: writer’s notebook
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Wait Time
There have been many times I have had to hang on to patience, hold my breath, and wait. I have had students that do not hesitate to jump into writing and others, not… Continue reading
Food Writing, Community Building, and a Book Giveaway
Writing workshop thrives when a community of children come together as writers who know each other. The first six weeks of school is when we build community. Here’s one way to build relationships and encourage kids to write about one of their favorite things simultaneously.
Leave a comment on this post for a chance to win a copy of Eric Carle and Friends’ newest book, What’s Your Favorite Food?
Inspire Your Young Writers With A Wide Inclusive Range of Topics and Stories
One thing we can do to support all writers, is to be intentional in the topics and story ideas we use as models and mentors. Modeling a wide range of stories and ideas can help each of your writers be inspired.
(Writing) Life Imitates Art: Finding Inspiration in Ralph Fletcher’s Instagram
The creative lives we maintain outside of writing fill us up as humans with stories to tell. When we bring this life into the writing workshop, it builds community, and it lays the foundation for lifelong writers who have strategies for sustaining their own writing lives.
Reimagine Notebook Entries Using a Mentor Text
Using a mentor text can be a little like taking a course from a published writer- we can allow him or her to teach us how to be stronger writers. This can certainly happen with our drafts… but we can also do this work in our notebooks. Oftentimes, doing so can free young writers up to do larger-scale revision. Here’s one way I tried that…
Ten Possible Minutes: Sacred Writing
Every year brings with it new surprises. I was delightfully surprised by just ten minutes this year. Ten minutes made a big difference.
The Quickwrite Handbook, A Review +Giveaway
Linda Rief has collected a treasure of mentor texts and created a guide to encourage you to find your own treasures! Start here, get inspired, and then see what you find when you start looking. It can be as small or big as you want when you begin and Linda gives us all the right tools to get started.
ICYMI: Notebooks as a Writer’s Tool
We hope you enjoyed our November Blog Series all about writer’s notebooks. In case you missed it, here is the recap to get you up to speed!
What goes in a Writer’s Notebook? Notebooks as a Writer’s Tool
Regardless of genre, we want to inspire students to develop their voices as writers, and then use those voices to entertain, inform, and change the world.
Differentiating the Writer’s Notebook for Every Stage K-8: Notebooks as a Writer’s Tool
If you can’t sketch quickly or jot words quickly, or the lines in on the paper feel too small, or you find it difficult to organize your ideas on a blank page, then perhaps there might be other tools that are a better fit for you.
Ways to Organize Writer’s Notebooks: Notebook as a Writer’s Tool
There is no one “correct” way to organize writer’s notebooks. So much depends upon the purpose the notebooks serve in your classroom and how students will utilize them during writing time. My goal with this post is to share different possibilities for organizing writer’s notebooks and present you with various options. To section or not to section will depend on how you see writer’s notebooks and the role they play in your workshop.
4 Purposes for a Writer’s Notebook: Notebooks as a Writer’s Tool
Understanding the purpose of something can unlock a path forward. This week, the authors of Two Writing Teachers are devoting digital ink to supporting teachers in thinking about the writer’s notebooks as an important writer’s tool. Today, let’s think about the various purposes of a notebook…
Six Ways to Keep the Energy of Writer’s Notebooks Alive All Year Long
You spent the first couple months of the school year helping students understand their lives are significant, their stories are worth recording, and their notebooks are the place to make all of that happen. What’s next now that it’s November?
Whose Notebook is it Anyway? Notebooks as a Writer’s Tool
Encouraging engagement with notebooks means we may need to get out of the way. The notebook should always feel like it belongs to the writer.
Summer Notebook: A Worthy Mission
As teachers, most of us view summer as a much-needed period for decompression and recharging. But as teachers of writing, there are likely several of us who see summertime as a valuable opportunity to prepare. One thing I plan to do is purchase a summer notebook…
Memory Chains: A Strategy for Writer’s Notebooks
Here’s a fun strategy you can try to generate writing in your notebook this summer. Come back-to-school time, you can teach your students how to use this strategy if they get stuck.
OLW Check-In: Note
How’s your OLW going this year? Mine has been popping up again recently and reminding me to make more of an effort.
One Line a Day
One reason we write is to help us remember. As a result, a line-a-day journal is a great way to inspire kids to write daily all summer (and maybe all year) long.
Spontaneous Sparks
My students got extra creative when we used some extra time in a spontaneous way!