“A writer’s notebook is a blank book where a writer can engage in the fun, often messy job of being a writer – practicing, listening,
playing with language, gathering images and insights and ideas. The purpose of such a notebook is to nourish the writer…
such a notebook… is one of the most essential tools of the trade.”

Fletcher and Portalupi, Lessons for the Writer’s Notebook, p.4

Click here to view a video overview of Writer's Notebook.

Launching the Notebook: When you begin the year...this is really the first "collection" that students make.

• All About Me (Grade 3)

• Writing from My Name (Grade 4)

• Coat of Arms (Grade 5)

• Open Mind (Grade 6)

• Heart Mapping (Grade 7)

• Writing Territories (Grade 8)

Collections

• Borrowed Text/Lifting a line

• TV/Movie Lines

• Things that make you go "huh"?

• Overheard conversations

• Quotes

• Favorite words

• Made-up words

• Words that drive me crazy

• Oxymorons

• Nicknames

• Thoughts

• Character names

• Dialogue tags

• Words to look up

• Song titles

• Try ten

• Re-reading and highlighting

• Pictures (cartoons, doodles, published)

• Articles (newspapers, magazines)

• Die-cuts

• Scavenger hunt (library)

• Memory spill (can move into free writes)

• Questioning

• Three in three (Three word phrases in three minutes)

• Mapping the text (i.e. Poetry pass)

Free Writes/Quick Writes

• Pass the notebook

• Describe a Zouch

• Sensory observations

• Ba da bing

• Writing to music

• Memory spill

• History of a name

• Five step writing

• 25 words or less

• Daily pages

• Writing off literature

• Writing from a word

• Writing from another point of view (POV)

• Write a script

• Interviews

• Writing through a mask

• Die-cuts

• Genre switch

• Write it (Teacher-approved note passing)