Writers Notebook

Leonardo Da Vinci's notebook (fromhttp://nicolebianchi.com/how-to-keep-writing-notebook/)

Leonardo DaVinci's notebook (from http://nicolebianchi.com/how-to-keep-writing-notebook/)

What goes in a Writers Notebook?

Anything that has the potential for moving the writing forward. Below are some ideas:

Quick writes -- and here are some ideas:

Craft noticings and giving the craft a try

Lists:

    • What might I read next? What might I write about?

    • Cool words

    • Genre ideas

    • Books I want to read/books I have read

    • Lines I love

    • Authors I love

Reflections:

    • How I've grown as a reader/writer

    • What I learn about myself by studying my entries

    • What I do well

    • What I want to learn/figure out

Observations:

    • What I heard and saw in class/in the hallway/in the cafeteria/at the mall

    • Overheard conversations

First drafts or "vomit" drafts (those drafts that may never go anywhere)

Ready to launch the writer's notebook?

Be sure to read this blog.

RUNNING OUT OF IDEAS?

Here's some inspiration from Moving Writers: Three Favorite Writers Notebook Prompts

And here's another blog on getting started...

Check these links to other ideas for the writers notebook: Penny Kittle, Three Teachers Talk (lots of blogs on the notebook), Moving Writers on notebook work, Ralph Fletcher along with others at NCTE, and my blog.

Several high school teachers were wrestling with how to incorporate the writer's notebook into their IB, AP, and concurrent college credit courses. Here's an open letter to them with the argument that yes, oh, yes, the writer's notebook has a place!

Letter to Josie_WNB.docx

Writer's notebook:

Before you go further, check out this blog on writer's notebooks.

Amy Ludwig VanDerwater has a great site called Sharing our Notebooks.

Here's what Linda Rief asks her students to do:

Rief_WRNExpectations copy.pdf

Mark Twain's writers notebook (from http://nicolebianchi.com/how-to-keep-writing-notebook/)

Pages of writers' notebooks: From American School in Abu Dhabi, Fairview High School in Boulder, Colorado, and two pages from Englewood Middle School in Englewood, Colorado

More entries from Englewood Middle School, Englewood, CO

Want more ideas? Check out this slide show from Rebekah O'Dell with Moving Writers.

Quick write ideas

"SOMETHING YOU SHOULD KNOW"

Shane Koyczan's spoken word poem "To This Day" -- great for middle and high school

Sense in the Senseless: a 10 year old talks about the controversies of today, including George Floyd and the Black Lives Movement.