“Just write. Don’t evaluate whether or not the stuff you are writing is good or bad. Just write it down. Don’t let any ideas escape. Capture them in the white-lined pages of your writer’s notebook.”
-Lynn Dorfman and Rose Cappelli, Mentor Texts
This week, I have expanded my understanding of the writing workshop. Writing doesn’t always have to be paragraph form with numerous sentences and perfect grammar/ spelling. Writing should be a lot more.
Writing can come through verses, pictures, sticky notes, lists, or jotting down ideas in a notebook. Writing can also come through connections from classroom literature. These entries can aid writers to make connections to their lives and literature. By writing in their notebooks, students can escape to a new place, meet new friends, or help them understand aspects of the real world. This allows students to see that everyday occurrences in their lives have meaning and are worth sharing.
In my soon to be classroom, I would perhaps like to introduce the writers notebook through shared experiences in literature. When choosing books that represent my students in many ways, they can learn about others. The books that students read connect with them on so many levels. These are books that students will fall in love with, and eagerly write in their notebooks about.
“All students deserve to read mirror books, in which they see themselves, and window books in which they learn about others.”
–Lynn Dorfman and Rose Cappelli, Mentor Texts
Before I pick a literature mentor text, I need to understand how students visualize themselves. One way to help me understand how my students visualize themselves is through a heart map. This concept is a new concept that I was introduced to this week. Through my own experience in writing a heart map, I was so eager to write about the things I love and the things I associate with. This was such a fun writing activity for me. By creating this map, I was inspired by future topics that I can write about in the future. All of these topics are so easy for me to write about, because I am so passionate about everything on my heart map.
The heart maps act as a place to explore, play and meander. It is a gateway for mapping out desires and your own heart. By having my students do the same in their own notebook, I will get a better understanding of connecting texts to use in the classroom with them.
To help students see their notebooks as important and valued, I will have them publish their proudest work. Instead of just having them write an entry and never come back tp it, I will have them pick ones that they are most proud of to share. As the teacher, I will only give encouraging comments to the writer. I will also never go in and read their work without their permission. The notebook is a place for students own personal thoughts and desires. If they have an entry that they want me to read, I will have them share it with me. Otherwise, I will not invade their privacy.
When I was in elementary school, we were asked to take our writer’s notebooks home to add pictures or drawings on the outside of our journal. This way, we felt comfortable with our writing and felt it to be personalized. However, after reading the introduction to ‘Brown Girl Dreaming’ by Jacqueline Woodson, I have thought of a different approach to personalization.
The beginning of ‘Brown Girl Dreaming‘ is about Jacquelines birth/ the history of her name. I think that a great introductory to writing and personalization is to have students decorate the outside of their writers notebook with a writing piece about the history of their own name. They will be invited to bring pictures to paste, or they can color the paper around the writing about their name.
Here is an example of how I would introduce my name on a writers notebook. First, I would have students draft their response on a scrap sheet of paper (or in their writers notebook), and then I would have them write on a piece of card stock so they can paste it on the outside of their writers notebook. If students don’t want their writing to be publicized, I can give them the option to paste their work on the inside of the front cover of their journal.
