Writer's Notebook Organization!

I've been using the Writer's Workshop model of teaching and celebrating writing for the last 8 years, but this is the first year that I feel I've got a good grip on how to help my students organize their Writer's Notebooks (WN). This blog will show you some options for organizing WN's and some sample lessons to help you implement the Writer's Workshop model easily.  Please visit my TeachersPayTeachers account to support the work I've done here at http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Writers-Notebook-Organization-Writers-Workshop-Starter-Kit   For everything I sell on the site, I give 10% to DonorsChoose.org and an additional 10% to Food for the Poor.  The complete kit is only $5 for all that you see here, plus Writer's Notebook labels and additional information for everything you  need to start your Writer's Workshop off on the "write" foot!

Here is the cover of my Writer's Notebook. I usually show my students a few of my WN's that I've used over the years (including one from 2nd grade!).  This is my newest one and it's still a work in progress. I encourage them to put anything that is school-appropriate on their WN, including photos, magazine & newspaper clippings, stickers, and words that symbolize who they are. The point of decorating it is to have more ownership in their writing/WN and to garner ideas for their writing based off of what they included on the covers of their WN. My first year I had my students decorate them in class, but I find it to be a huge waste of time when I have SO much else to teach them.  After explaining it, I make decorating their personal WN homework for over a weekend.  It makes for pretty fun homework!

I also decorated the back of my WN.

Here is the title page, which is the first blank page in the spiral/composition book:

Next comes the dedication page. Again, this brings more purpose to students' writing- they are writing for someone or to someone and get to choose who their audience is.  This is the first tab in my WN, but I probably won't have my students tab theirs, simply because they won't use this much after they write it. I made up some little tabs that are easy to print and put them on Teachers Pay Teachers so no one has to write all these by hand or deal with the crazy formatting!  I used the little Staples sticky notes that I got 100+ of for a quarter, and then put clear tape over it to help it stick better.  Most of my students have their tabs last for the entire year, but a few have to retape theirs.

The next tab is for the Table of Contents and it's just one page long.  This is a section that students will add to throughout the year, so I like to have it tabbed for easy access.  It's organized by the title of the work and the page number, just like a real non-fiction book or chapter book, which helps solidify the text features lessons too! 

 Now for the Writing Ideas tab, which is the next five pages.  This is another area where students will be flipping to on a regular basis for ideas on what to write, so a tab makes this search much more efficient.  The first ideas for writing activity that I do with my students is their Authority List.  I do a quick-write where they finish the sentence, "I know a lot about..." and they jot down as many things as they possibly can.  I give them different categories, like sports, animals, colors, friends, activities, places they've been, books they've read, favorite authors, things they do at home, things their family does, what they do on the weekends/summer/mornings/etc.  The idea is to get as many things down as quickly as possible so they have a lot of options to write about when they come back to this page throughout the school year.

For even more ideas on how to get kids excited about writing and give them a plethora of ideas on it, visit my TPT site!  There are four additional pages with pictures and descriptions to help your students have a never-ending supply of things to write about!

The next tab is My Writing.  This is the largest tab because this is where all the student's fabulous writing will go!  Brainstorms, graphic organizers, rough drafts, editing, and final copies can all fit in here.  Frequently in my classroom, I get out our "Final Copy Paper," which is designer paper.  Students can choose from dozens of different designs to find the one that fits their story the best, and then they write their final copy on the fancy paper instead of on regular paper in their WN's.  This mostly just serves as extra motivation to write their story out all over again after the long editing process!  Notice the date column on the left so you can see what they've produced each day, and so can they. :)

 Second to last in the WN's is the Writing Notes tab.  This is found on the second to last page of the book, and this is the one section that we write "backwards."  While the My Writing section slowly progresses towards the back of the Writer's Notebook, the Writing Notes section moves steadily towards the front.  This is where any notes from our daily/weekly Writer's Workshop lesson is recorded.  You can see the column with the date in the left margin (I love dating things so students have more accountability for what they have achieved each day).  Pictured are notes about types of punctuation, tips for narrative writing, and some great ways to start your first sentence of your story.

This is the very last page in the book, and it is reserved for Writing Goals.  These are the goals that I help each student write based on their particular struggles in writing.  Here are some sample goals from my classroom.  In the past, after my student and I create and record their new writing goal, they get a colorful sticky note.  On the front, they write their name and on the back, they write their goal.  Then, they place this sticky beneath the writing trait poster that they're working on (Conventions, Organization, etc).  From time to time, I'll have my students write about how they are doing with their writing and/or literacy goal, talk to someone about it, tell their parents about it, etc.  Ideally, I meet with each student at least every other month to assess their progress on their old goal and to create a new one if necessary, but this doesn't always happen.  I'm sure in your classroom, you will magically find time to meet with every student all the time! :)

What do you put in your Writer's Notebook?  Which lessons are best for the beginning of the year?    I do want to note that some of these WW lesson ideas are not mine, but can be found in Teaching Quality Writing or are from district workshops that I attended regarding Writer's Workshop.  This is simply my own take on it, and a nice way to organize everything.  What tabs would you add to your WN?

Again, all of these fun things, plus easy-to-print labels and additional information can be found on http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Writers-Notebook-Organization-Writers-Workshop-Starter-Kit for only $5.  Thank you preemptively for supporting my work, and for sharing your love of writing with your students!