Dr. Shari Daniels: Whatever It Be

My notebooks are in a constant state of growing and changing, layers of me evolving right alongside them. Early notebooks began as diaries and emotional purging mediums, of which I penned much ink during those high school and college years back in the 1980’s. As my children arrived, snippets of their silliness and precious moments I didn’t want to forget were peppered between entries that contained my hopes and dreams as a young mother and wife. I realized early on that my notebook housed what was close to my heart.

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Some twenty years later, Julie Cameron’s book, The Artist’s Way, would prompt a shift in my notebook writing, and morning pages were born. As a ritual, each morning still, three pages of whatever shows up finds its way to the notebook with the intention to hear the whispers of my soul and receive guidance for the day. I learned to recognize patterns of whining and emotional drama and discovered that writing in my notebook could pull me out of the sludge; sometimes an anchor, sometimes a buoy. And: what I put my attention towards shaped my life.

Later yet, as a newly minted literacy coach being trained at OSU, I was introduced to Ralph Fletcher, Georgia Heard, and Donald Graves, and a new layer of transformation took place. The concept that a notebook is a treasure box housing precious gems, random threads, and collectables to one day grow into something more: a story, a poem, or a book, was my new mantra. Now I was not just writing for myself, but with the possibility that I could go shopping in my notebook for any topic that calls to me, play with it, write deeper into and around it or reshape it for the public. 

I turned into a "story-catcher," living wide awake for any remnant to be safeguarded in the notebook: an image, dialogue of another (especially my husband - the sharp witted man he is), a random wonder or text message. The world became fodder for my notebook.

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In the last 5-10 years, my notebooks evolved once again, as they screamed for creativity and meaning. The work of Lynda Barry, Lisa Swerling, Debbie Ridpath Ohi, Leah O’Donnel, and Sunni Brown,  Austin Kleon, dozens of children’s authors and Amy of course, inspire the poetry and drawings, doodles and silliness that now pervades my notebooks. I’ve added art journaling, Instagram images, and visual storytelling to be more playful in this space. Mary Oliver’s words to “Pay Attention ~ Be Astonished ~ and Tell About It” feed purpose into my devotion to adding more ink on the page. In a world of “un-noticers”, being one who “makes alertness a hidden discipline of familiarity” (as David Whyte words depict) feels like a special gift I have been granted. 

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My notebooks, for me, and for others I’ve spoken to, have led me to a discovery and documentation of who I am. Following the threads of which I collect, to a larger meaning unearths the hidden treasures of which I learn from and see new perspectives. Words revealed are guidance, often medicine for healing, and quite frankly, just a sweet bliss upon the surprise of the next line. Once that essence is tasted and experienced, it becomes a necessary nourishment for the feeding of my soul.

Invitation (I love “invitations” ~ borrowing the word from Donald Graves and Julia Cameron):

Writing has taught me to live with a sense of presence and awareness of anything that aspires or inspires, creates a sense of wonder, and for what surprises me, shocks me, and disturbs the core of my being. Cultivating a new lens for "seeing" is the first habit of mind for living this writerly life.

So, listen to a podcast for words that abduct you, snap the photo of a tweet that calls your name and Paparang it (I'm in love with this new little gadget I bought myself), writing from it to see where it takes you, capture a sentence overheard from your children, or learn to doodle people and make speech bubbles as the thoughts and words.  Whatever it be, capture it.  Be a witness to the threads of stories around you.

If you are just beginning to cultivate a sense of awareness and need a scaffold, I’ve revised Lynda Barry’s tool for paying attention and found it is a good “starter” in teaching the eyes and ears what to look for. Each snippet saved can later be lifted to explore your way into a story to find meaning or some Universal Truth. It’s a lovely strategy in which the only requirement is that you put down your phone and live wide awake in this world.

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Because, the world is waiting for you. Our lives will pass us by and we will wonder how we spent our days and who we were. Pull out the net and do some capturing of all those sweet butterflies.

Thank you so much to Amy for inviting me to share my notebooks. Digging into my neglected blogging space to share past scribbles with you has made me realize how much I miss blogging and a writing community.  New nudges are being stirred to venture down some untraveled paths.

Shari 😊

Dr. Shari Daniels has taught for 25 years in a variety of roles: kindergarten teacher, first grade teacher, third grade teacher, and literacy coach. After literacy coach training at OSU, she felt a calling to graduate school and earned her PhD in Teaching and Learning. Currently, she is an assistant professor teaching preservice teachers at the University of Minnesota in Crookston. Shari is mother of four amazing children who are all following their callings in the world of adulting, grandma to Grayson, who is 2 and 1/2, with a sibling on the way, and wife to her high school sweetheart of 30 years. She hopes to one day live out on a plot of land in the country, with a couple small writing shacks scattered about and maybe raise llamas. She will probably will wear purple.

Sharing Our Notebooks is offering a giveaway of a book Shari recommends - POEMCRAZY by Susan G. Wooldridge - for a reader of this post. Please leave a comment by 11:59pm on Sunday, April 7 to be entered into this random drawing.  Please be sure to leave a way to contact you as part of your comment.

Available through IndieBound

Please know that Sharing Our Notebooks welcomes all kinds of notebook keepers - of any age and interest - to open up their pages and share their process.  At the present time, I am accepting all notebook entries and am especially hoping to receive more entries from boys and men who keep any kind of notebooks.  If you are interested in writing in this space, please contact me, Amy, directly.

Please share a comment below if you wish.

If you are under 13 years old, please comment only with a parent 

or as part of a group with your teacher and class.

Brett Vogelsinger: Variations

One of the advantages of keeping a writing teacher’s notebook is that I have the opportunity to practice an idea or follow a thread more than once over the course of a day.  If I ask my students to respond to a poem or write in the manner of a particular poet, I will do so several times by the day’s end.

In my class we respond to a poem in a variety of ways.  Sometimes, we write “after” a poet, borrowing a first line and writing a sort of spin-off poem.  Here are my variations on the poem “Hope” by Ali Liebegott, experimenting with various first lines borrowed from the original.

In the following poem draft, I challenged students to write a line that sounds like it is from the poem “Famous” by Naomi Shihab Nye, almost like a “deleted scene” you might find in the DVD extras for the poem.  I challenged myself to also incorporates a vocabulary word from our study of the book Night to demonstrate usage.

And in this third example, I wrote lines in celebration of small victories or gratitudes in my life that the ending of “won’t you celebrate with me?” by Lucille Clifton drew out in my heart.

In all three cases, I see my writing change and sometimes grow throughout a given day.  

From this I have learned that the first idea is frequently not my best idea.  It gives me the opportunity to share that process with students the following day.  And it reminds me to have students create more than one variation on an idea. For instance, in the Lucille Clifton model, could students think of three different “come celebrate with me” statements to make about their own lives?  Might these be arranged into a poem of their own? Or might we evaluate which one has the best rhythm or the broadest appeal to an audience outside of the Writer’s Notebook? Or might this simply invite greater gratitude and cheer into my classroom?

Variations invite possibility, and possibility grows writers.  

Try it:  

If you are a teacher, find a poem or passage that inspires you and invite a class to write something that sounds a bit like it but also brings in their own voices.  Then, repeat this with several of your classes, writing something different each period. If you are feeling especially brave, write under a document camera! If you are not a teacher, then try this same process in your notebook across the space of three to four days, coming back to same prompt from a different angle each time.  Your first approach is seldom your best approach.

Real Brett & Wonderful Student Portrait of Brett

Brett Vogelsinger is a ninth-grade English teacher at Holicong Middle School.  He is advisor of the school’s literary magazine, Sevenatenine, and runs an annual blog project, Go Poems,  promoting daily poetry reading in the classroom. You can find him on Twitter @theVogelman.

Please know that Sharing Our Notebooks welcomes all kinds of notebook keepers - of any age and interest - to open up their pages and share their process.  At the present time, I am accepting all notebook entries and am especially hoping to receive more entries from boys and men who keep any kind of notebooks.  If you are interested in writing in this space, please contact me, Amy, directly.

Please share a comment below if you wish.

If you are under 13 years old, please comment only with a parent 

or as part of a group with your teacher and class.

New Year...New Notebooks!

Beginning Again

Photo by Amy LV

Dear Notebooking Friends,

Happy New School Year to many of us!  This year I look forward to spending time here, sharing more posts about keeping notebooks, celebrating the notebooks of writers, artists, and collectors of all ages.

Writing in a notebook can be a funny thing.  At times, I find it difficult to begin. But once I'm off...I'm off, and the more frequently I write, the more at home I feel in my book.  It helps me to set aside time each day to write, and it is during this time that I discover who I am right now, what means most to me on this day now.  My best rhythm is to begin each day by writing three pages, as I learned to do long ago from Julia Cameron's book THE ARTIST'S WAY.  Right now I am writing in this leather notebook.  I love that it is refillable and hope to write in it for years to come.

Tree Notebook!

Photo by Amy LV

I always save the first few pages of a notebook for quotes which I gather from my reading and listening.  These are word treasures.  I tuck photographs, cards, and other snips of paperlife into my notebook and sometimes glue these right to the pages.

Quotes & Bits of Life

Photo by Amy LV

At the moment, I am also keeping another small notebook, one I owned for a long time and kept empty for a long time. This notebook I am keeping for 100 days. I am keeping it for a special project, one I simply call 100 Carved Erasers.

Long Fabric Notebook

Photo by Amy LV

Each day for 100 days (today is Day #39), I am carving an eraser into a rubber stamp.  I stamp each one into this book, four per page.

4 Stamps per Page x 25 Pages =100 Stamps!

Photo by Amy LV

I will use some of these stamps to make cards and perhaps some to make wrapping paper.  Mostly, I like carving them because doing this each day forces me to think in images and to play with shape in new and surprising ways. 

Weekend Stamps

Photo by Amy LV

I am also learning that some designs look snazzy when they repeat, and so I play with the stamps in my big writing notebook too.

Saturday's Stamp 8 Times

Photo by Amy LV

The blank pages of notebooks provide endless possibility and place for play. Last year at The Poem Farm, I shared this poem about how even though I may struggle when facing the blank page, I love it all the same...

I love peeking into others' notebooks and having the opportunity to share many pages here at Sharing Our Notebooks. Please know that I extend this sharing invitation to you, whether you are an individual or a class of students.  If you wish to share pages with readers here, please just send me an e-mail, and I will get back to you.  If you are under 18, please send the e-mail with a parent or teacher as I will only respond to e-mails from adults.

Please make yourself at home exploring this space; you will find many notebook photos and videos and lists of great books about notebooking. And as the year goes on, I'll be tidying and moving things around a bit to make the site even more friendly.

Every page is a new beginning, and I am grateful to my notebooks for teaching me this over and over and over again.

Peace,

Amy

Please share a comment below if you wish.

If you are under 13 years old, please comment only with a parent 

or as part of a group with your teacher and class.

Dina Bolan: A Think Tank of Ideas

Class Notebooks!

Writers notebooks have been a part of my writing teaching in every classroom, at every grade I’ve taught. However, my eyes were completely opened when Amy came to do an author visit at our school. She showed her many notebooks and modeled the type of writing that these writers notebooks should really be meant for. And so began the work of shifting my mindset about not only how I taught using the notebook, but also how I used it myself.

Our fiction unit flowed beautifully. Students used their notebooks as a place to imagine, dream, try out new things, play with words. We had an ongoing, seemingly endless list of ideas for fiction notebook entries. It was a beautiful thing.

Once we began our nonfiction unit, that flow of ideas for notebooking stopped. Even I had a hard time coming up with ideas for my notebook. We searched for resources and ideas on the internet, but nothing was better than when we finally sat as a class “think tank” and made a list of our own ideas!

This is what we came up with:

Class Think Tank Chart

The handwriting may be difficult to read, so here is our list: 

• Write about something cool you just learned
• Compare 2 things
• Write about something that interests you and you think others will like to learn!
• Animals 
• Write about something you learned in a book
• Draw a map and write about it
• Take someone on a tour of a place you know well
• Write about someone or something that inspires you!
• Write a review about your favorite book
• Write like you are in an animal’s natural habitat
• Collect data and make a graph or chart
• Sketch someplace you’ve been and write a lot about it
• Write a how-to!
• Write a poem about something you know a lot about, then write long!

Look what happened when we tried out this writing strategy...Write a poem about something you know a lot about, then write long!

by Jannat

by Owen

by Isabel

by Grey

This was an amazing experience in mixing poetry with nonfiction.  Try it!

Dina Bolan is a third grade teacher at Alexander Hamilton Elementary School in Glen Rock, New Jersey. Dina attended Teachers College, Columbia University where her love for reading and writing bloomed. She enjoys learning from other teachers and teacher leaders about ways to grow passionate writers! You can connect with Dina on Twitter @mrsbolansclass.

With gratitude to Dina Bolan and her students for sharing here, I will send a beautiful mystery notebook to a commenter on today's post.  Please comment by Thursday, February 8 at midnight to be included in the drawing...and please remember to leave a way to contact you should you win.

Please know that Sharing Our Notebooks welcomes all kinds of notebook keepers - of any age and interest - to open up their pages and share their process.  At the present time, I am accepting all notebook entries and am especially hoping to receive some entries from boys and men who keep any kind of notebooks.  If you are interested in writing in this space, please contact me, Amy, directly.  I welcome you!

Please share a comment below if you wish.

If you are under 13 years old, please comment only with a parent 

or as part of a group with your teacher and class.

Caroline Starr Rose: An On-Going Private Conversation

Notebook Tabs

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I

Oh, notebook mine,
the place I gather records, thoughts
before I know the way a story winds,
unsure whether or not
I’ll need what I’ve written down,
or if the scribbling of a word will be mere passing fact,
a jot to teach, inform me of the world I’m learning,
a collection of phrases to ground
me in the things I sorely lack,
to multiply my yearning.

II

You are a place of lists,
dates, maps, quotes, sometimes a sketch,
this novelist’s definition of bliss,
my source when I long to catch
a whiff of history, a summer berry’s hue,
a sense of place, the voice of one long dead,
the temperature when kerosene solidifies –
truths I can bend and shift, make new,
and like a ball of dough transform to bread
with heat and time. You stoke the fire in my mind’s eye.

III

You are a testament to months of labor,
a tribute to half-formed thoughts and starts,
a vestibule which leads to something greater,
the fresh firsts of a future art,
a net that gathers every object nearer,
sifts and filters, groups and sorts,
until like seeds that push to germination,
truth and story blend, grow clearer:
dear notebook, you help me bring forth
a story to its liberation.

****

I write historical fiction, so the idea of keeping a notebook to gather my research and questions about a new project isn’t a new one. But over the years my notebooks have expanded into something other than just a collection of historical tidbits. They’ve become an on-going private conversation where I can noncommittally explore the fragile beginnings of a new idea or work out troublesome knots once the story’s under way.

In other words, my notebooks are teaching me the importance of writing about the writing.

My novel JASPER AND THE RIDDLE OF RILEY'S MINE didn’t yet exist when it sold as part of a two-book deal. For a few weeks I was thrilled with my good fortune, but then panic settled in. I pulled out my notebook and scribbled down my worries: I’m not very good at plotting and have never created with a deadline. There’s pressure knowing I’ve sold something I haven’t even begun.

Worries

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Then I made myself try and answer these worries, to the best of my ability. Plot comes, I wrote. It can be discovered in character development and drafting. My agent and editor believe I can do this. If I can’t see this in myself right now, I can borrow their belief. I returned to this page in my notebook throughout the drafting process any time I needed a little courage.

The word “writing” is sometimes a heavy load for me to carry. My mind fills with word counts and productivity — the opposite of how my projects often progress. I’ve allowed myself to replace “writing” with terms that don’t hold so many expectations. Now I explore. Create. Discover. Tinker. Wonder. Practice.

This might mean figuring out what’s working with a premise and what isn’t. Or creating a list of historical details I need to further study. Some days it includes questions I have about a story’s timeline and plot or notes on characters — their secrets, their fears, the stories they tell themselves to make sense of the world — and their relationships with others. My notebook becomes a running commentary, an in-the-moment chance to reflect.

Notebook Sluice

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Photograph of Washerwoman & Notes

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In going back over my notes, I witness a book slowly taking shape. Each page records challenges that I eventually find my way through. Writing about the writing becomes a promise that someday my book will come together. Though it might be hard to believe in the moment, I hold the proof my story has made it this far, that it will reach the end.

Notebook Tip: My notebooks aren't usually organized in any way, so finding things can be tricky. One easy solution is to make sticky-note tabs to label key topics. I use the same color and placement for the same topic throughout the notebook (for example: If I have three separate pages on setting, I'll use a green tab for each and make sure all three tabs line up together. That way, everything is easy to find). This lets me go with the flow while working in my notebook and allows for simple organization at a later date.

Caroline Starr Rose is an award-winning middle grade and picture book author whose books have been ALA-ALSC Notable, Junior Library Guild, ABA New Voices, Kids’ Indie Next, Amazon’s Best Books of the Month for Kids, and Bank Street College of Education Best Books selections. In addition, her books have been nominated for almost two dozen state awards lists. In 2012 Caroline was named a Publishers Weekly Flying Start Author for her debut novel, MAY B. Visit her at carolinestarrrose.com.

Caroline has generously offered to give away one copy of JASPER AND THE RIDDLE OF RILEY'S MINE - to a reader of this post.  Please leave a comment (and a way to contact you should you win) by Sunday, October 28 to be entered into this random drawing.  

Learn More About this Book at Caroline's Website

Please know that Sharing Our Notebooks welcomes all kinds of notebook keepers - of any age and interest - to open up their pages and share their process.  At the present time, I am accepting all notebook entries and am especially hoping to receive some entries from boys and men who keep any kind of notebooks.  If you are interested in writing in this space, please contact me, Amy, directly.  I welcome you!

Please share a comment below if you wish.

If you are under 13 years old, please comment only with a parent 

or as part of a group with your teacher and class.

Alexandra Zurbrick: A Purpose for Each One

Like many other writers, I have this feeling of desire and inspiration when I come across journals. No matter the store, I always end up finding the notebooks. So, when I say that I “collect” journals, I am really expressing that I have little self control when it comes to purchasing them.

I love receiving journals as gifts because each gift notebook has even more meaning to it. The question that then haunts me is: What should I use this journal for? I always fear that the contents I choose to fill it with could somehow destroy the aesthetic.

I consider myself rather creative, but to make such important decisions, like what to write in a journal, I cannot brainstorm alone. I then turn to my friend, Pinterest. While there are so many brilliant ideas on this website/app, it is from my experience, I have learned it is no fun to just copy the ideas displayed. Instead, I allow them to get me motivated to act on my own ideas, so that they represent me!

There are no rules when it comes to keeping a notebook, which is part of the writer’s block that comes with each new journal at times. I recently sat down with all my journals and stared at them. There were so many; what was I going to do with them all? One was from when I was 10 and used it as a diary. Another was and still is being used as a diary. Okay… two down and many more to pick fates for. After much thought, I put sticky notes in my journals to designate a purpose for each one and to feel ready for the journey with each one.

Here is a list of the different types of journals I am keeping:
Diary Style
Photo Journal
Future Journal
Question Journal
Adventure Journal
Prompts/30 Day Challenge Journal
Short Story Journal

By listing these variations without much explanation, it allows your imagination to wander and create your own variations of these journals!

An Exercise:

Sometimes when you are just getting started in your notebook, you begin to feel pressured to fit everything in. Especially if it is diary style! If you wish to try diary style journaling, start by bulleting the things you want to be known in your diary. For example, if you want to run through the day’s events, bullet them. This way, if there is an event you want to give more information about you can refer back, but everything is in there. 

Some people say that after keeping a daily diary, it begins to feel like a job. You CAN avoid this, just keep it simple and keep your diary the way that works for you!

Here is an excellent Pinterest page to inspire any writer!

Alexandra Zurbrick is a 2016 graduate of Orchard Park High school. She will be attending SUNY Oswego Fall 2016 to study Journalism and Creative Writing. Alexandra has written for the Buffalo News and was Editor in Chief of her school’s newspaper. She is on the path to become a fictional author as well as a magazine journalist, hoping to inspire other writers. 

In honor of Alexandra's sharing here, Sharing Our Notebooks will send a copy of one of her favorite books,  WRITING FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION by Orson Scott Card, Philip Athans, and Jay Lake.  Please leave a comment, including a way of contacting you should you win, by Sunday, August 28, to be entered into the drawing.

Please know that Sharing Our Notebooks welcomes all kinds of notebook keepers - of any age and interest - to open up their pages and share their process.  At the present time, I am accepting all notebook entries and am especially hoping to receive some entries from boys and men who keep any kind of notebooks.  If you are interested in writing in this space, please contact me, Amy, directly.

Please share a comment below if you wish.

If you are under 13 years old, please comment only with a parent 

or as part of a group with your teacher and class.

Stefanie Cole: Notebooks are Important, Spotty or Not

Notebook usage in my Grade 7 language class is framed in spottiness.

Don’t get me wrong.  Notebooks are an important tool in my class, but we never end up using them the way I want to.

Please click any image to enlarge.

I dream of my students keeping notebooks like the ones Linda Rief describes in Read Write Teach.  I’ve read Aimee Buckner’s Notebook Know-How and collected her strategies to help us develop our writing.  I’ve poured over Lynda Barry’s drawings and reflection activities in Syllabus because I know that words might be my friends, but they aren’t necessarily the friends of my students.

Some of my students, especially ones who find writing more difficult, have greater success and enjoyment when they draw out their ideas, and I have to give them space and time to do this, but in the busy-ness of school life that dream of regular reflection often falls away.

When Amy asked me to write a Sharing Our Notebooks post, I didn't think I was qualified to write it.  One of my goals as a language teacher is to have students develop the habits of readers and writers.  Using a notebook is one of those habits.

My students know I have a notebook as I often respond to the videos, poems, ideas, stories & questions with them.  I've helped them recognize that a notebook doesn't have to be neat, as they can barely read mine.  They see the cross outs, angled writing, bubbles and boxes I use to frame my ideas.

When authors Ted Staunton and Richard Scrimger, joined us to take us through their process of story writing, they generously shared their very different notebooks with us, reinforcing this idea. But I still didn’t think our use of notebooks was overly impressive.

The process of story writing made us turn to our notebooks...  

Students listed character traits, habits and personality quirks 

of their antagonists and protagonists 

so they would have them in mind while they were writing. 

They pictured their settings and wrote details to use in their stories.

They wrote various opening lines to see which ones would draw in their reader.

They experimented with the problems their stories would encompass.

They drew pictures to show rising action in their plot lines.

And sometimes they simply let the arrows tell the story. 

 They were creative, engaged and funny.  

I wondered if they appreciated the time and planning we put into the notebooks before getting down to the writing or if they were just following instructions.  I asked them to complete a Quick Write answering the question, "Did the planning activities in your notebook help you with your story?" so I could see their thinking.

Interestingly, responses fell into two distinct categories.

They found their notebooks kept ideas safe and accessible:

Raine: It helped me remember what I wanted to add to my book and ideas we could add.

Dakota: It keeps your ideas organized so that you can look back and get more ideas.

Carter: Writing in our notebook helps a lot.  We could write down ideas and remember them.

Tyler: We could just look in our notebooks and write our ideas in the story.

They also found their notebooks allowed them to generate more ideas:

Connor: It helped me visualize the characters and setting by jotting down different ideas and pictures.

Sarah: The more I read all my ideas more and more came to my head!

Ashlyn: It also keeps your ideas flowing.

Raine: It helped me plan out my characters and how they will relate to the story.

I was amazed that the collection of minds which make up my classroom, male, female, various learning disabilities, differing socio-economic backgrounds and varying degrees of academic success came to the same consensus.  

I didn’t fully appreciate how insightful my students were until I came across Sunni Brown's reflections in her book, The Doodle Revolution, on something she calls The Extended Mind.  If we think about it, our notebooks are extensions of our brains and repositories of our often fleeting ideas.  

Brown states that “Creating a physical place in which to pour our thoughts and images permits our minds to release that information from short-term memory, thus letting us see it externalized and releasing us to organize, examine, and reflect on its deeper implications,” (p.24) and that, “extending the mind…is often what makes the emergence of creativity and deeper analysis possible.”  (p. 25)  My students knew that.  They might not have written it as eloquently, but given the chance to reflect, they recognized the power of the notebook. 

Spotty or not, we will continue to use our notebooks to allow that generation of creativity and analysis.  Even if our notebooks aren’t pretty, they have an important place in our classroom, and I’ll just have to work harder to find ways to allow them to experiment with and recognize what a notebook can do!

Stefanie and Her Son William

Stefanie Cole has been an avid reader and collector of quotes in multiple notebooks from her hometown, Uxbridge, Ontario, for over thirty years.  Yes, that's thirty years of notebooks stashed away in her house.  This habit eventually led to her becoming a teacher-librarian.  For the last five years of her teaching career, she has had the honour of balancing library with Grade 7 Language and now she fills her notebooks with her own writing, as well as the inspirational words of others.  She works to pass her passion for the written word on to her students. 

 

Stefanie has generously offered to give one copy of Lynda Barry's SYLLABUS: NOTES FROM AN ACCIDENTAL PROFESSOR to someone who comments on this post.  Please leave a comment, including a way of contacting you should you win, by Saturday, April 30, to be entered into the drawing.

Please know that Sharing Our Notebooks welcomes all kinds of notebook keepers - of any age and interest - to open up their pages and share their process.  At the present time, I am accepting all notebook entries and am especially hoping to receive some entries from boys and men who keep any kind of notebooks.  If you are interested in writing in this space, please contact me, Amy, directly.

Please share a comment below if you wish.

Stacey Dallas Johnston: A Fresh Perspective

Notebooks, like people, come in all shapes and sizes. Much like people, notebooks exist all around us ambiguously, yet many people never take the time to look below the surface. Students have been directed to “get a notebook” usually from the start of 1st grade until they graduate from high school. A notebook becomes an obligatory thing. A school supply. A requirement. However, if I, as a teacher, strive to give my students more to take away from my class than a supply list and obligations, I need to give them the opportunities and the tools to see things from a new perspective.

As a high school English teacher I strive for my students to see notebooks, literature, people, even themselves with a fresh perspective by looking below the surface as we journey through our year together.

I will preface this discussion about notebooks and learning and people by saying I am not the same teacher now that I was when I started 15 years ago. As a new teacher I had pedagogical skills and writing skills, but I lacked philosophy. 

Many new teachers or even pre-service teachers are asked to outline their “philosophy of teaching.” I remember writing my “philosophy of education” paper in graduate school, but for one billion dollars I couldn’t tell you what I wrote. Today, however, I can tell you what my philosophy is. My teaching philosophy is all about relevance, empathy, purpose, and growth. 

I need my students to learn with intent and to learn to use reflection about their learning to better understand not only my lessons but themselves. My students' notebooks have evolved into tools; they are not just school supplies.

I have always been a notebooker. I have also always been a writer. It is easy for me to understand the organic need to grasp a pen and write or doodle or brainstorm. For me, this is a natural process.

For some of my students, however, it doesn’t come as naturally. So, what’s a teacher to do when trying to introduce students to the world of notebooking? That’s a very good question. It is a question I am still trying to to fully answer, but for now I have a few ideas to share:

Use notebooks for reflection, not for high stakes assignments.

• The notebook is more welcoming when the writers focus more on what they are writing instead of how many points it is worth. 
• I have begun calling my notebooks “Meta Journals”. These tools for meta-cognition allow my students to think and reflect without the burden of strict due dates and grades.

Don’t dictate the product.

• I have started to allow my students the opportunity to use the medium they see fit when responding in their notebooks, the caveat being that their notebooks must contain variety. 
• Some students mind map, some doodle, some list, some write poetry, some launch into the great American novel. Regardless of the product, all students are going through the process of reflection, the most important part.

Set expectations, but allow for some autonomy and flexibility.

• I have plenty of assignments queued up for each semester, the notebook doesn’t need to be in that category. We do a class inventory of the responses each quarter, and at the end of the semester, students look back on their responses as a way to reflect on their learning. I award points for participation but not for content. The notebook is a tool, and students needs to learn for themselves the power of meta-cognition and self-reflection.

This year, my students’ “Meta Journals” have allowed them to own their thinking and learning. The process of notebooking after we read, after we have class discussions, even after we take a test, allows them to take that next step beyond finishing a task or producing a product and reflect on the why of the process. I have enjoyed reading their responses. Once they got over the hurdle of being so concerned with directions and grades, they let go and started using their notebooks as tools.  The outcome has been great to observe.

Eve - Creative Writing Student: 

“I tend to work in layers. I write, then edit, then edit again, 

all on the same page in order to show my thoughts.”

Shelby-AP Literature & Composition/ Creative Writing Student: 

“To someone else, my notebook would look like 

a scribbled mess of smushed words and heavy sketches. 

To me, my notebook allows me to portray my thoughts in my own style. 

It holds everything from one-liners, random drawings and single words 

to finished piece, rejected lines and the sketches that inspired my work.”

Leslie - AP Literature & Composition Student: 

“Writing in my Meta-cognitive journal allows me to

 organize my thoughts, develop an opinion, and effectively analyze 

not only what we’ve read in class, but how I feel about it.”

Paige - AP Literature & Composition Student: 

“I use my notebook to collect my thoughts 

on what we’re focusing on in class 

and to make sure I keep all my ideas in one place.”

Try This!  Draw even if you can’t draw, write a poem even if you’re not a poet, write from the third person point of view. Do anything in your notebook that you wouldn’t normally do. This will allow you to use a new process and push you creatively. 

As a writer, I have found that drawing, even though I am terrible, always ends with me writing a piece I am happy with. For students, this breaks the rigidity of the standard paragraphing that they so often have to use when responding to class assignments.

Stacey Dallas Johnston is a full-time teacher, full-time mother, and part-time writer currently residing in Las Vegas, NV. Fifteen years teaching means over 2,500 students have passed through her classroom door. Together with her students and peers she reads, writes, and discusses literature, composition and creative writing while continuing to develop her own craft. As a fellow of the Southern Nevada Writing Project, she has worked at the state and national level to enhance the teaching of writing in public education. 

Sharing Our Notebooks will give away one copy of one of Stacey's favorite books about writing, Anne Lamott's BIRD BY BIRD: SOME INSTRUCTIONS ON WRITING AND LIFE.  Please leave a comment, including a way of contacting you should you win, by Sunday, April 3, to be entered into the drawing.

Please know that Sharing Our Notebooks welcomes all kinds of notebook keepers - of any age and interest - to open up their pages and share their process.  At the present time, I am accepting all notebook entries and am especially hoping to receive some entries from boys and men who keep any kind of notebooks.  If you are interested in writing in this space, please contact me, Amy, directly.

Please share a comment below if you wish.