P.S. 171’s Writing Initiative: Breathing New Life Into Writer’s Notebooks Presented by: Lila Jorge, Patricia Krivac and Stacey Shubitz Thursday, June 8th, 2006 Professional Development Day

What NCTE Has To Say About Writing Instruction Recent research provides information on successful features of writing instruction and achievement, and indeed, one feature is clear: students experienced with writing more than one draft of a paper, and students whose writing was saved in folders or portfolios, achieved higher average scores than their peers who did not write multiple drafts or save their writing. (1998 NAEP Report Card; see http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/ writing.) Yet despite such findings, recent studies of the status of writing in the school curriculum also show that too often students are asked to write infrequently and within a narrow range of genres and for limited purposes. Taken from http://www.ncte.org/library/files/Elementary/PolicyElem.pdf.

Characteristics of Effective Writing Policies in Schools Recognize that students use writing functionally before their efforts are conventionally accurate. Recognize that all students possess knowledge about written language and build from that knowledge and effort. Recognize the multiple functions that writing serves, both informal and formal. Incorporate technology in supporting student writing and the presentation of learning. Recognize that the responsibility for developing writing ability is shared across grade levels and content areas. Taken from http://www.ncte.org/prog/writing/policy/110613.htm

What is a Writer’s Notebook? What it is… It’s a place to Write down what makes you angry, sad, amazed… Write down what you noticed and don’t want to forget. Record your reactions. Live like a writer. What it isn’t… Not a diary Not a journal

Guidelines for Our (Students’) Notebooks Do not use a heading… just the date. Never rip out pages! Write on the front/back of each page. Number the pages. Write legibly, but not your neatest handwriting. Use paragraph structure even as you draft. Follow the rules of grammar and spelling, but not to the point that you lose the essence of what you’re trying to write. Care for your notebook. Vary your topics. Make sure there is evidence of learning in your notebook. Write daily!

5-Subject Notebooks: Dividing Option A Section 1: Collecting Section 2: Developing/Seed Ideas Section 3: Crafting Strategies Section 4: Revision/Editing Strategies Section 5: Personal Stuff Lists Mementos (e.g., photographs, ticket stubs) Quotations Wonderful Words

What’s In? What’s Out? Taken from Buckner, Notebook Know How, 14 In the Notebook Daily Entries Strategies for launching the notebook. Finding Patterns Rereading and marking patterns in writing. Collecting Around A Topic Strategies for thinking about a topic. Revision Strategies Trying different things for a draft. Editing, Grammar Notes Class notes on grammar and editing skills. Out of the Notebook Drafts The whole piece is written out on yellow legal-pad paper. Revisions Revisions the author wants to use are added or deleted from the piece. Editing Editing the actual piece before writing the final copy is done right on the draft. Final Copy Final copies of writing pieces are done on white paper or another published format.

If You Follow Option A, Students Will Need… A two-pocket writing folder, which contains: “Working” pieces of writing A list of high-frequency words Assignment Guidelines Rubrics A yellow (legal) pad for drafting.

5-Subject Notebooks: Dividing Option B Section 1: Collecting Entries Section 2: Developing Topics Section 3: Drafting Section 4: Strategies Section 5: Personal Stuff Lists Photographs Quotations Ticket Stubs

5-Subject Notebooks: Dividing Option C Section 1: Collecting/Developing Section 2: Drafting Section 3: Drafting Section 4: Strategies Section 5: Personal Stuff Lists Photographs Quotations Ticket Stubs

5-Subject Notebooks: Dividing Option D “The creation of each notebook, each time, is in the hands of the writer.” --Aimee Buckner, Notebook Know How, 5 Allow your students to use a structure that works best for them. Permit them to name each of the five sections in their Writer’s Notebook.

Motivation to keep kids writing throughout the writing process… Collecting Developing a Seed Idea Drafting Revising Hardest!!! Editing Publishing Easiest!!!

Commenting on Students’ Notebooks Your responses to students’ writing can focus on craft. Connect the student’s writing to the writing of another author. Commenting specifically on craft, quoting phrases and words that are striking. Name for the student something you see them doing with his/her writing. Mention the parts that sound really good, quoting actual parts of the writing. Tell the student what their writing makes you think about or remember. Share what you may have learned from the content of their piece. Share questions the writing raises for you. Katie Wood Ray, Wondrous Words, 295

Assessing Notebooks Rubrics – Two Sources http://www.middleweb.com/ReadWrkshp/RWdownld/WriteNotebkRubric.pdf Aimee Buckner, Notebook Know-How, 113. Self-Assessments Midyear and End-of-year Self-Evaluations Ask students to reread their notebook and comment on how they use their notebook and commitment to it. Have students select entries which demonstrate original thinking and qualities of good writing. Ask students to do some goal setting and/or brainstorm on things they’d like to improve upon as a writer.

How do we get started? WE WRITE! In order to create a climate in our classroom that promotes writing, we keep our own notebook beside us as we live so we have stories and experiences to draw on in our minilessons, during our conferences and in our conversations with our children.

How can I get started today? Make your Blueline notebook your own! Decorate your Blueline notebook. Create your own sections with tabs. Start writing using some of the following ideas…

Top 10 Things To Write About In A Writer’s Notebook 10. What amazes/surprises/angers you 9. Quotes or inspiring passages from books or poems 8. What you notice 7. Small details that intrigue you 6. Snatches of talk you overhear 5. Memories 4. Lists 3. Photos, articles, ticket stubs or other artifacts 2. Your own sketches, drawings or doodles 1. What you wonder about

Goals: What We Hope To See Students Developing Over Time… A sense of self as writers and personal writing processes that work for them. Ways of reading the world like writers. Collecting ideas with variety, volume and thoughtfulness. Each student possesses personal writing processes that work for him/her. Boxes and bullets Stream of consciousness writing T-charts Katie Wood Ray, Wondrous Words, 215

Goals, continued… A sense of thoughtful, deliberate purpose about their work as writers, and a willingness to linger with those purposes. Following an idea through to publication. “Living with” a topic over time. Katie Wood Ray, Wondrous Words, 215

Goals, continued… Becoming members of a responsive, literate community. Peer conferring and collaboration. Working with “editors.” Family Members Friends Teachers Katie Wood Ray, Wondrous Words, 213

Goals, continued… Ways of reading texts like writers (for both structure and ways with words). Developing a sense of craft, genre and form. Studying a variety of genres. Studying one writer’s body of work. Author Studies Writer’s Craft Studies Katie Wood Ray, Wondrous Words, 216

Goals, continued… A sense of audience. Understanding of how to prepare writing to share with the “world.” Learning about publishing opportunities for young writers. Focusing on what happens during the publishing process. Katie Wood Ray, Wondrous Words, 216

Q&A Ask away!

Summer 2006 Challenge Take your notebook with you this summer Take it with you as much as possible! Even if you only scribble one – two brief entries/day, that’s okay. You’re laying the groundwork for what we are asking our children to do this fall. It doesn’t matter what you write this summer… just write!

How on earth will I meet this challenge? Keep your notebook with you so you can write at any place and time. Pull out your writer’s notebook when you have a few minutes with nothing else to do. The notebook should reflect you. If you like to draw, draw in your notebook. If you make lots of lists, then list-away! Remember: WRITING CAN BE FUN! Your notebook is a place to enjoy writing.

Final Words from Living Between the Lines “If we keep notebooks, we will expect and welcome diversity. We will soon come to know, in a deep-seated way, that there are wide variations in how and why writers keep notebooks. Some people always write in sentences and paragraphs; others often include lists and sketches. Some people do most of their writing in jotted notes as they carry their notebook around with them, and others write mostly at their desks during a predictable period each day. Some people continue with their notebook even when they are drafting and revising a piece, and others let the notebook slip into the background when a writing project moves into the foreground…” “In the end, it will be the diversity in our classrooms rather than our minilessons and conferences that extends what we and our students do in notebooks.” --Lucy Calkins, Living Between the Lines, 52

Looking Ahead… We look forward to sharing our writing with you on August 31st! Until then, HAPPY WRITING!