How to Set Up a Writer’s Notebook

Welcome to this super helpful blog post in setting up writer's notebooks.

The biggest piece of advice I could give any teacher of writing is to keep your own notebook as well.

You want to model what lifelong writing looks like. You want to take your students on a writing journey as you write alongside them. They need to see you as a writer. They want to help you as a writer.

You will exponentially increase that writing success by modeling writing and keeping your own writer's notebook.

Don't worry, you can cheat and use the same one year after year The kids will never know.

I recommend adding to your notebook each year. This is also amazing because as the years go on you can show students that you have been writing for some time, and it's not just during the writing workshop either!

With that said, let's dive into the parts of a writer's notebook.

Students will record their finished writing projects throughout the year.

Have students copy the mini-lesson statement each day and one example. This will make the learning last all year and not just 15 minutes for one day!

This is the largest section of the notebook, where students will plant ideas that could turn into writing projects. Have them date each entry and create a new page for each seed so they have space to come back and write more in the future.

Students can learn a lot about writing by learning from other writers in the room, published writing, and you! Keep a record of all the new learning and reflect on it often.

Here are your tabs!

These are a couple of ideas for getting started with your writer's notebooks.

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