Using a Writer's Notebook
The very nature of the writer’s notebook means it’s organization and use is personalized to the owner. The key for developing writers is to write in the notebook consistently. The notebook can be used to record writing strategies and mini-lessons in grammar and punctuation. A section can be designated for words the students struggle to spell and to include definitions of writing and literary terms.
Writer's notebooks can be started as early as the student shows an interest, or by fourth grade. Most teachers implementing the writer’s notebook require a specific number of pages per week, often a number high enough that it would demand writing on the weekends. A homeschool parent should never use a red pen in their student’s writer’s notebook. Just as we don’t criticize a son or daughter for coming in from baseball practice dirty, we must withhold fault finding when looking at their practice writing.
Notebooks should be messy. They should include scribbled out sentences, wrongly spelled words, and paragraphs that trail off into a new subject or end abruptly. These are the ground balls our experimenting writers are diving across the field to catch. By using post-a-notes to comment on writer’s notebooks, parents can highlight something without marking in the book itself.
Students should not be given a writing prompt for writing in their writer’s notebooks. Rather, they should be taught strategies for coming up with their own topics and then developing those topics into further entries. Aimee Burkner offers ideas for getting students writing in her book, Notebook Know-How. One such strategy is to ask students to make a list of 10 Best Events of Life, 5 Worst Pieces of Clothing I Own, or other similar list topic. Have students place a star near list items that they could write more about, encouraging them to select one topic a day.
Burkner’s book is full of other ideas for encouraging students to write and how to move writing done in the writer’s notebook to polished pieces. The homeschool parent wanting to use writer’s notebooks to their fullest potential should study Notebook Know-How and implement the numerous ideas Burkner offers.
