Notebook Know-How: Strategies for the Writer's Notebook

A writer's notebook is an essential springboard for the pieces that will later be crafted in writers' workshop. It is here that students brainstorm topics, play with leads and endings, tweak a new revision strategy, or test out a genre for the first time.

In Notebook Know-How, Aimee Buckner provides the tools teachers need to make writers' notebooks an integral part of their writing programs. She also addresses many of the questions teachers ask when they start using notebooks with their students, including:

• How do I launch the notebook?
• What mini-lessons can be used throughout the year to help students become more skilled in keeping notebooks?
• How do I help students who are stuck in writing ruts with notebooks?
• How do I help students use their learning from notebooks for other writing?
• How do I organize notebooks so that the design is flexible, yet still allows students to access information easily?
• How can writers' notebooks help students become better readers?
• How do I assess notebooks?

This compact guide is packed with lessons, tips, and samples of student writing to help teachers make the most of writers' notebooks, without sacrificing time needed for the rest of the literacy curriculum. In fact, Notebook Know-How shows how smart and focused use of writers' notebooks enhances and deepens literacy learning in both reading and writing for students in grades 3–8.