Starting the Year with A Writer’s Notebook…Here’s a Strategy to try!

THE INSPIRATION

While researching prewriting strategies for my new writing intervention program, I found this article: “Powerful Prewriting: Four strategies to teach kids how to discover their own stories” by Hindie Weissman

THE CONNECTION

I think that writer’s notebooks are a must for ANY writing classroom.  They are a place to store ideas for writing.

How do you get ideas to store? Here’s how!

THE STRATEGY – TO COLLECT IDEAS for PERSONAL NARRATIVE WRITING

1.The teacher reads this book aloud.

Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Pena

OR students view this YouTube Video version.

2. After reading the book,  the teacher models each of the four topics listed below using her own life as examples. CJ’s experiences in the book can also be inferred as examples.

people they know well,

places they go to often,

things they do all the time,

things they care deeply about.

Note: These same topics will be the titles of four separate pages in the students own writer’s notebooks.

3. Students have a chance to brainstorm their own connections to the topics above.

4. The students share their connections with other students and the teacher.

5. Students write down connections in their notebooks directly or brainstormed on to post it notes and then added to their writer’s notebooks.

6. Students choose an idea to take further.

The article goes on to say that the teacher models how to take one of the ideas for the topic and plan a writing piece.

Make sure that students add to these topics throughout the year, this should not be a one-time activity.

On another day discuss the grandma and how she changed CJ’s perspective on his neighborhood. There is a great discussion to be had on where we notice beauty and how people can be blind to it or too distracted by life to notice.

Enjoy!

Love always,

Coach Clark