Based on information from:

1
Ideas for Writing in a Writers Notebook
Staff Development Meeting January 6, 2005

• Based on information from
• A Writers Notebook, Unlocking the Writer Within
  You
• By Ralph Fletcher

2
What is a Writers Notebook?

• A writers notebook is not a diary! Writers
  react. Writers need a place to record these
  reactions. Thats what a writers notebook is
  for. It gives you a place to write down what
  makes you angry or sad or amazed, to write down
  what you noticed and dont want to forget. A
  writers notebook gives you a place to live like
  a writer.

3
Unforgettable Stories

• What moves you?
• Whenever you hear a story that stirs something
  inside of you, take out your notebook and write!
• Look for stories that inspire, fascinate, fill
  you with wonder.
• What stories keep tumbling through your mind even
  when you try not to think of them?

4
Fierce Wonderings

• Pay attention to what haunts you, what images or
  memories keep running around in your mind even
  when you try not to think about them.
• What do you wonder about?
• Explore these questions in your notebook.

5
Writing Small

• Use the writers notebook to jot down the
  important little details you notice or hear
  about. Details make writing come alive! You can
  train yourself to notice the details around you.
  Use all of your senses. Reread your notebook and
  look for places where you are using vague,
  general words. What other words could you use???

6
Seed Ideas

• A writers notebook is just like an incubator a
  protective place to keep our infant idea safe and
  warm, a place to grow while it is too young, too
  new to survive on its own. In time you may
  decide to go back to that idea, add to it, change
  it, or combine it with another idea. Dont
  expect the seeds to sprout immediately. A writer
  needs patience.

7
Mind Pictures

• Pay attention to your world. Drink in the world
  through your five senses. Use your notebook to
  capture mind photographs you take of the world
  around you.
• Collect mind pictures wherever you are the city
  sidewalk, YMCA, church, train station, pet
  store. Use all your senses. Try to describe as
  carefully and honestly as you can.

8
Dreams

• Get into the habit of writing down dreams before
  they leave you. Your notebook can work as an
  alarm clock to remind you to wake up and pay
  attention to whats happening in your world, both
  inside and out.

9
Snatches of Talk

• Writers are fascinated by talk, obsessed with
  what people say and how they say it, how they
  interrupt themselves, the words they repeat, the
  way they pronounce or mispronounce certain words.
  The way we talk says as ton about who we are.
  Notebooks can be filled with dialogue. Learn to
  listen wherever you go.

10
Lists

• Many writers keep lists favorite books, movies
  to see, ideas for all sorts of writing projects.
  Keep a section in your notebook for your favorite
  words, unusual words, new words, and remarkable
  words. Listing facts is one of the best ways to
  brainstorm about a subject that interests you.

11
Memories

• Memories just may be the most important
  possession any writer has. Our memories shape
  what we write. As a writer, you need to connect
  yourself with your own unique history. When you
  explore memories in your writing, pay attention
  to the feelings connected to it. Exploring a
  memory includes looking into not only what
  happened but also how it affected you then, and
  how it affects you know.

12
Writing that Inspires

• The notebook can work as a scrapbook to collect
  important relics from your life. You can also
  use your notebook as a different sort of
  scrapbook, a place to gather writing that
  inspires you. Use your notebook as a container
  to hold all the beautiful writing you collect.

13
Rereading Digging Out the Crystals

• How do you separate crystal from dull rock?
  Reread and sift out the most valuable pieces,
  bits that spark your own original writing. Ask
  yourself What seems interesting/intriguing?
  What stuff do I care about? What ideas keep
  tugging at me? What seems bold and original?
  Reread. Look for seeds. Look for sparks.

14
Final thought about what a notebook is from fifth
grader, Briana Carlin.

• A notebook is where you keep dew drops from a dew
  drop morning. Its where the sun sets. Its the
  wind in your face at the beach looking out over
  the water. A notebook is where youre playing
  with your dog. Its where you have dreams about
  walking on rainbows. Its where the good
  feelings and the bad feelings spend the night.

15
Over time in a writing workshop I hope to see
students developing...

• Sense of self as writers
• ways of reading the world like writers,
  collecting ideas with variety, volume, and
  thoughtfulness
• as members of a responsive, literate community
• ways of reading texts like writers, developing a
  sense of craft, genre, and form in writing
• a sense of audience, and an understanding of how
  to prepare writing into the world

From The Writing Workshop, by Katie Ray
16
What tone looks like and sounds like...

• Whats on the walls and hanging around the room?
• Look at the geography of the room. Does this
  look like a place where I am supposed to work
  with other students or where I should stick to
  myself?
• Look to see where the teacher is in the room.
  Is she/he out where the students are, teaching
  alongside them while they work?
• Look around to see what materials are in the room.

17

• Look to see how neat or how cluttered the room
  is.
• What kind of talk is going on in the room?
• When the teacher talks, is it loud and direct
  like she/he thinks no one really wants to listen
  anyway?
• What kinds of questions does the teacher ask
  his/her students?
• Does the teachers response to his/her students
  show that he/she was really listening to them?
• Watch to see how students carry on in the
  classroom.

18

• Keep an eye on the clock. How is time used in
  the classroom?
• Look at what students are working on in their
  writing.
• Ask a student to tell you about writing workshop
  in the class. Does the student understand what
  this time is for?

From The Writing Workshop, by Katie Ray
19
Notebook Checklist

• Keep your notebook with you at all times.
• Date every entry.
• Do not skip pages.
• All drawings should have writing with them.
• Number the pages.
• Write daily.
• Vary your topics.
• Care for your notebook.
• Make sure there is evidence of what youre
  learning in your notebook.

20
Application/Homework

• Write in your writers notebook. Share your
  notebook writing experiences with your students.
• Bring a book to the next staff development
  meeting that you used to teach notebook/folder
  writing. Be prepared to share with your
  colleagues how you used the book to teach an
  aspect of writing.