Back To School Part 2: Setting Up Writer's Notebooks

Getting your classroom ready for the first day of school is sometimes the only thing on teachers' minds.  Sometimes we forget that we have to teach the first few days too. I am a HUGE advocate of starting off strong and by that I mean, YOU WILL TEACH ON DAY 1 and  in most cases, give homework. I know that this might go against all the touchy feely ideas of being a teacher,  but if you don't start now, it begins the snowball of 'non-teaching days.' Might I remind many teachers of the day(s) before a holiday, the day that you come back after a break, the days when you have assemblies, the field trip days, and so forth....So to start the year off strong, plan on teaching on the very first day to set the tone and get the kids excited about reading and writing!!!

Teaching a mini-lesson on the first day of school and showing your students how to set up the notebook in a particular way will make your life easier in the end. By taking the time to phyiscally model the  setup on chart paper, with a giant sized writer's notebook or with a regular sized notebook using a document reader camera, will save you tons of time later when assessing.  When I say modeling for the class, I mean starting with a blank notebook page and taking your class through the entire  process.  In the past, I have done this on chart paper in the front of the room and left the chart there for the first month of school as a reference. 

Day 1 Writing Notebooks Set Up

1. The first four pages (front and back counted as one page) were the table of contents. I labeled it Table of Contents  (TOC)  and then had the children put numbers on all the front (or right sided ) pages in the notebook. (once kids are in 4th grade, they could do this at home for homework early on)
2. The first entry in the TOC  was done in class on day 1 and part of it was completed at the meeting area before being set off to try it on their own.
3. Page number (top right corner of page)
4. Top Header: (in the middle of that big empty area): H for entry done in Home or S for entry done in school
5. Far left side of paper in the margin the date  (8/3) 
6. Students start writing on line one, and try to write to the end of each line
7. Students write on the RIGHT/FRONT  page ( i.e. page 5) and then continue on to page 6 which in the next page in the notebook
8. Students are expected to fill up at least one page during  a workshop period ( this can change depending on the grade and level of the students)
9. The LEFT or BACK side of the notebook pages are used for revising or expanding ideas that come up after a student has completed an entry and thus would DATE that page on the left margin too. 

Here is an example of what a notebook might look like:

 

  
Now here is an actual notebook from a student in Grade 4. Please note that this entry was labeled as support, because the student was working on an essay unit and needed help in distinguishing the different parts that were used to support his idea/thesis that Henry Hudson was dumb.

Questions? Comments?
 
Next up: Back to School Part 3: Setting up Reading Notebooks