How often do you take up writer’s notebooks?
I am trying to decide this b/c I have 88 students. I want to figure out a system that I can use so that I am not bogged down. It would be simple if I didn’t take up 48 response logs every week with 6th grade. I have thought about the every other week taking up response logs and then writer’s notebooks, but just want to see if there is a better way.
Any thoughts???
School seems to be going pretty smoothly for me now. We have been in school for about 4 weeks. In each 6th grade class I have 24 students, which I am used to 18-20. I am amazed of how well my new middle school students are getting the hang of “middle school.” They love writing in their writer’s notebooks and want to share more than ever. I am so excited that they are excited about writing. I can’t wait to take up their writer’s notebooks to see the creativity going on.
I have been using Aimee Buckner’s Notebook Know How to get ideas on writer’s notebooks. I love her rubric she uses to grade notebooks too. I have also used her idea of cutting and pasting notes/handouts in the notebooks–what a time saver! Her idea on how to keep notes and entries separate is priceless. Last year I got tired of thumbing through notebooks to find their entries b/c their notes were mixed. I even told my students to turn their notebook upside down if they didn’t like writing from the back of the notebook. I have learned a lot from last year’s trial and error with notebooks — I am still learning!
The 2007-2008 school year is over! Last Friday was the last day of school. It went by so fast this year, but I am glad it’s over. I am ready for some R & R. The only thing about the end of the year is the process of packing up everything. At my school we have to take everything off of the walls and store it. It’s a daunting task, but I guess it’s a good thing because you start the next year off fresh.
This summer I am looking forward to reading literature about writer’s notebooks and how to implement them better. I will be attending an advanced institute where I’ll be researching more of my inquiries. Right now I am thinking of the following questions:
How can I better implement a writer’s notebook into my writer’s workshop?
How can I use a writer’s notebook to model and teach revision and editing?
If you have any ideas, I would love to hear about them on either topic…
Starting Monday, my classes will begin our first poetry read a thon. I got the idea from poets.org. I introduced it on Wednesday to my classes and how I would like them to go about doing the poetry read a thon. My students and I are excited.
Here’s how it works:
My students sign up for a day to read a poem to the class.I have a sign up sheet in the room so that everyone will have a chance to read a poem. The student reads the poem they have selected to the class on their designated day. The students then paste the poems into their writers’ notebooks and then respond to the poems in paragraph form using the criteria given to them.
Click below for the handout I gave my students.
Today I read and graded my students’ slices of life. In order to get a 100% they were to write at least 21 half page entries. To get extra credit they had to write 25 entries and to win the pizza party they had to write 31 entries. Out of 71 students 21 students had 31 entries! I was impressed. I have planned the pizza party next week. A lot of my students enjoyed writing the slices of life. Some want to continue. Tomorrow I am going to give them a reflection sheet on slices of life and their writers’ notebooks in general. I want to see what they like and don’t like so I can revamp for next year.
Friday, I launched the slice of life challenge that Stacy’s doing with her fourth graders. My students were excited about it because it is something different to do in their writer’s notebooks. I have had students comment on how they don’t like the way I conduct writer’s notebooks. For now, I will continue conducting my writer’s notebooks the way I have been doing, but I feel that it is a topic worth researching. I can’t wait to read my student’s SOLs!
For Christmas I recieved 3 great books to help me teach writing craft, teach the context of writing with grammar, and revision. I love books and I think these titles would be beneficial to any teacher who teaches English and writing.
Writing Whizardry: 60 Mini-lessons to Teach Elaboration and Writer’s Craft by Maity Schrecengost
This book is my favorite out of the three. It presents the lesson with examples and non-examples of elaboration or craft then gives practice. After practicing there is applying the knowlege learned. I highly recommend this book if you want help with teaching elaboration and craft.
Writi
ng Workshop Survival Kit 2nd Edition by Gary Robert Muschla
This book is packed with anything you need to know on creating a writing workshop to managing your writing workshop. It also includes 100 mini-lessons that focus on the types of writing, writing techniques, and the mechanics of writing.
Hot Fudge Monday:Tasty Ways to Teach Parts of Speech… by Randy Larson
This book is an unique way to teaching the parts of speech with the context of writing. This is an easy way to start teaching grammar in the context of writing. The book includes reproducibles that are not like worksheets you get with your grammar textbook. After practicing the skill, students apply the lesson with writing.
I can’t wait to start the new year off with my new great finds. I hope these books help you too!
Each quarter I have my students create a writing of choice. This is where they browse through their writer’s notebooks or come up with a new topic to write about. I give them a week to create their works of writing. I provide them with self editing rubrics, peer editing rubrics, and a teacher rubric. These rubrics are to help them edit their writing. The teacher rubric looks just like the self and peer rubrics; however, they don’t write on it. I use it to grade their work. I feel that they need to know what I am expecting and that’s why the self and peer rubrics have the same criteria. This has helped greatly.
After completing their writing of choice, they turn them in and I grade them. I then decide on the best ones and display them in the hallway. I have a flashlight with a beam coming down and their writing is placed on the beam. The title says “Writers in the Spotlight.” I then award those students with an award and a pen for their creative work. By the end of the year, I will have everyone’s work on the wall and they will also be awarded. I try to look for improvements in their writing. I also send a postcard to their parents to let them know how well they are doing in class. I have gotten several complements from their parents and my students too!
As I mentioned before, I did have a scare. I spoke with the guidance counselor and she didn’t seem to be too concerned. She told me to speak with the child’s mother and I did. The mother was very grateful for me to mention my concerns. This child has had emotional problems in the past and it was good that the mother found out about it. I also spoke to the child and the child said they figured I would talk to them about the notebook. I told the child how I was concerned and how proud I was that they were writing in their notebook every night. The child said they had nothing else to write about, but I think it goes deeper than that. The mother of the child said she would discuss the issue at home with her child. I feel the outcome went well.
This week I have been grading my students’ writer’s notebooks, and I am impressed! Some of my students are really deep thinkers. Who would have thought 6th and 7th graders could be so deep! I am still amazed on how some still do not take them home and write in them. I am going to have to start taking them up more often. I have taken up 7th grade’s twice and 6th grade’s once. My goal for next quarter is to take them up at least 3-4 times.
I take up 4-5 notebooks a day, so I don’t have 80 notebooks to grade on one day. This is easy to manage as well, and I can get the notebooks graded while they are working on an assignment. That way I can get the notebook back before class ends.
Be wary; I did get a scare. One of my students wrote do not read on the tops of a few pages, so of course I was curious. Usually when they write that, they are mad at someone, but not this time. Some scary words caught my eye and so I “read”, and was horrified from what I read. Now I need to talk to the guidance counselor and their parents. I just encourage you to make sure you read what your students write and take the notebooks up periodically!
 | Chang on My Merrells |
 | Joe Zenir on How Often? |
 | Dee on Thoughtful Responses |
 | Meg Nicholson on Commas and Because |
 | davisbg on Commas and Because |
