# data[].attributes.body
In defense of the paper writers notebook even in pandemic times

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
And these days, when my students’ physical proximity to each other and their teachers is more tightly controlled, I can still provide a space for physical proximity to their ideas: the ink and pape…

# data[].attributes.body
Here are his 2020 notebooks

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Here's what a year of my notebooks looks like. This year I needed them more than ever.

The big ones are my diaries, the medium-sized one is my logbook, and the little ones are my pocket notebooks. (Before 100 people email me: Here's a storefront of all my gear.)

Yes, I keep three notebooks. A notebook turducken.

I carry the pocket notebook around all day and scribble every dumb thought I have as the day progresses.

I write or draw 3+ pages every morning in the diary. (Here's an example of what it looks like inside and why I keep one.)

I usually start a notebook with a guardian spirit.

I have a silly ritual of weighing my notebook before and after I use it.

When I can't write or draw, I make collages.

I've been keeping a notebook for almost 25 years now. And yes, I do re-read them - they're where many things in my books begin.

If you're looking for a New Year's Resolution, keeping a daily notebook is a pretty solid one. It can be hard to get started, so a few years ago, I made The Steal Like An Artist Journal to help. Start with just one page a day and go from there. You might be surprised where your notebook takes you.

The days stack up:
Filed under: Notebooks. (h/t to Mo Willems for the idea)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Here's what a year of my notebooks looks like. This year I needed them more than ever. The big ones are my diaries, the medium-sized one is my logbook, and the little ones are my pocket notebooks. (Before 100 people email me: Here's a storefront of all my gear.)

# data[].attributes.body
Here's one teacher's solution to grading when grades are required.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
For all the years of my teaching career, my students have always kept writer's notebooks. We personalize our covers and create our own book lists and dictionaries, practice writing, sketching, and glue-ins to make every writer feel at home, and then go about the work of filling those empty pages with ideas, practice, drafts, and beauty throughout our time together. I do this work beside my students, and we inspire each other- the same way I see my teacher mentors do this.

Because of this framing, students are invested in their individual writer's notebooks, and they are carefully and creatively cultivated. As a result, when I collect the notebooks, it's not for the purpose of accountability: it's for the purpose of students sharing something they've chosen with me, and for me to gather some information about where my students might need more instruction.

Just as students have their choice reading books lying open on their desks when we talk about their reading lives, they have their own writer's notebooks lying open when we confer about their writing lives. I can see, and guide, students' work in the notebook on a daily basis, so when I collect notebooks, most of what I'm seeing isn't new to me.

Students select two pieces of writing they would like feedback on and flag them with post-it notes, then turn in their notebook every two weeks. I browse through their writing, have a look at their TBR lists and personal dictionaries, and write back on the pieces they've noted.

Once per quarter, I ask students to do a "journal harvest," in which they revisit their writing from that quarter, assess their growth as a writer, set new goals going forward, and choose one piece they may have abandoned to harvest, revise, and polish.

If my classroom were gradeless, that would be that: daily conferences, biweekly turn-ins, quarterly harvests. That gives students a variety of feedback types and times, and gives me, the teacher, enough information to help move individual writers and the class as a whole in their writing growth. Because I have always been required to enter grades weekly into an online gradebook, I make turn-ins worth 20 points and quarterly harvests worth 60 points.

Students who do the work with fidelity and demonstrate growth earn the full points possible. Daily conferences are filled with self-assessment, which informs my "grading"-it's easier to help award points to students when they've already set their own goals and assessed their progress during our conversations during the week.

As always, I treat the notebook as "workshop, playground, repository," via the guidance of Tom Romano in Write What Matters. It is a place for students to "think, ruminate, speculate with the pressure off and the stakes low" (16), and as such, our grading should reflect that.

Note: This post is a part of a series. It's based primarily on the most frequent questions about readers-writers workshop asked at our workshop trainings. For more see here.
Shana Karnes lives in Wisconsin and teaches writers, educators, and her own small children how to improve their lives with literacy. As a new resident to the Dairy State, she'd love your recommendations about things to do. Connect with Shana on Twitter at @litreader.
Tagged: grading writers notebooks, writing notebooks

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Q & A: How do you grade the writer's notebook?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
For all the years of my teaching career, my students have always kept writer's notebooks. We personalize our covers and create our own book lists and dictionaries, practice writing, sketching, and glue-ins to make every writer feel at home, and then go about the work of filling those empty pages with ideas, practice, drafts, and...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
writer's notebook - TWO WRITING TEACHERS

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Posts about writer's notebook written by Stacey Shubitz, Amy Ellerman, Therapi Kaplan, Betsy Hubbard, Marina Rodriguez, BethMooreSchool, Lanny Ball, Melanie Meehan, and Kathleen Neagle Sokolowski

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
I have a confession. I didn't always use a writer's notebook, either as teacher and especially as a student. It's hard to remember what that was like- Where did I keep all my thoughts? How did I keep track of it all? Writer's notebooks-or journals-were something I remember learning about in graduate school, and while I tried a bit of it when I first started teaching, I quickly abandoned the practice in favor of the neat, clean handout I could create (and control).

I think it was the open-endedness of the writer's notebook that intimidated me: What prompts would I use? How would I know what prompts would work? And for what texts? Do I even have time for this?

Fast forward 15+ years, and I can't imagine teaching without a writer's notebook. That is not to say that I use them in all my classes. I'm still working on using them more deliberately and consistently in my literature-based courses. But writing? How do you teach writing without a writer's notebook? I can't imagine.

Instead, I've learned to embrace and celebrate the opportunity that writer's notebooks offer. My own notebooks have changed over the years, too, as I moved from small, lined notebooks to bigger, unlined versions (my current notebook, and so far my favorite, is a Moleskine with dotted pages-dotted pages!).

I used to worry that every notebook prompt had to tie in with what we were reading or currently writing. While that's still true most of the time, I've also found that sometimes a good notebook prompt doesn't just reflect what's in the curriculum, but also opens the way to new thinking and reflection, which then leads to new reading and writing. A good notebook prompt is generative.

So in no particular order, I thought I'd share three of my favorite writer's notebook prompts from this year (so far).

Letter to Self
Background
If students get anything from maintaining a writer's notebook, I hope it's the practice of self-reflection. This notebook prompt gets students thinking about who they were in the past, but more importantly, what that might say about themselves now.
Prompt
Think back to your 5-year-old self, kindergarten or thereabouts. Knowing what you know now, what advice or wisdom could you offer to that 5-year-old version of you? Write a letter to your 5-year-old self. Repeat for age 10. Repeat for age 14.
Rationale
I love this prompt for a few reasons. First, it forces students to reflect on who they were at various points in their lives. Who we are is ever-changing, and rather than give into the change passively, taking the time reflect on how we've changed-whether it's our hopes, our fears, or our musical tastes-forces us to be honest about those changes, and whether those changes were positive. When we ask students to think about their 5-, 10-, or 14-year-old selves, we're also acknowledging that inherent complexity, even multiplicity, of identity.

Finally, I love this prompt because it honors students' wisdom. Too often, we look to those older than ourselves for guidance, we privilege those with more experience. But experience is relative, and we might overlook or underestimate the wisdom that many students already have. By asking students to write a letter to their younger selves, it honors the wisdom they have gained even in their relatively brief lives. It's not been brief to them.
Possible connections to reading/writing

Students could polish and turn into a longer piece.

Students could also partner with elementary and middle schools to send their letters to students in those grades.

Students could use this prompt just before reading any coming-of-age novel.

Students can connect this to the Notice & Note signpost, Words of the Wiser, and look for similar connections in their literature study.

Students could turn this "letter to self" into a commencement speech.

Related mentor texts
Prized Possession
Background
Every year, one of the first things I try to do with the writer's notebook is to pack it with lists. I ask students to list everything: favorite foods, favorite books, favorite movies, classes, place to go, etc. There is no list that is too mundane or too obscure. There's no shortage of inspiration, but the Listography series has become my go-to resource for "list" prompts. One of these lists is "prized possessions." While that's nothing new-isn't a Christmas list a type of "prized possessions" list?-what I try to do with this list is ask students to dig deeper into why it's important to them.
Prompt
Review your list of prized possessions. Choose one and place it in the center of your page. Take a few moments to create a mind map of connected experiences. In other words: when you think of this possession, what memories or experiences come to mind? Connect as many as you can by broadening your mind map.

(Give students a few minutes, then continue.)

Now review the memories and experiences you've connected. Which stand out to you? Mark those.

Now think about what word(s)-what ideas or emotions-are connected to that experience for you? Make those connections by again broadening your mind map.
Rationale
By using a structured mind map, students can better understand how to connect the to the . What I want students to uncover in this exercise is something is important to them. In most cases, it's not about the object, per se, but about what the object represents . And what that represents is grounded in their experiences. In years past, whenever I've had students share a prized possession, their reflection on its significance has been largely superficial. They discuss its physical features and they might tell a story of how they got it, but they fall just short of why it really matters and more importantly, what it says about them .

Instead, the mind map forces students to think on multiple levels of significance:

Possession (concrete) -- Experiences (concrete) -- Bigger Idea/Emotion (abstract)
Model
When I do this exercise with students, I use my camera as my prized possession. My camera is a Nikon D700, a full-frame DSLR. When I think about this camera, I remember all the pictures I've taken with it, and the first pictures that come to mind are my favorites. Now I start to connect specific memories to my camera (and I build out my mind map).

As I review these memories, I realize my favorites are all the ones that have to do with not only my children, but of everyday moments with them: the chubby fingers my youngest used to grip his sippy cup, the picture of the boys playing Legos on a surprise snow day, the way my son's lips pursed when he made choo-choo-choo and sounds with his action figures. Now I realize that it's not about the camera, but about the small moments I've had with the boys, watching them grow up, documenting the mundane. And really, if I dig a little deeper, I guess it's really about my own fear as their mother-fear of their growing up. I don't want them to grow up.

By asking students to "build out" their thinking in a mind map, they can better understand the layers of complexity.
Possible connections to reading/writing

As with all notebook entries, students could polish and turn into a longer narrative.

Students could create an infographic version of their prized possessions list, while still trying to capture that "abstract" (why it's important) component.

Students can also create a mind map for an important symbol in a text, building it out in the same way.

Related mentor texts
Your Best Thing

My students, like us, are often pushed and stressed to near breaking points. I see it in their faces when they've just had a huge math test or the groans when I assign yet another reading. Yes, they're teenagers who might be prone to angst, but I can empathize with them. High school isn't what it used to be.

I stole this prompt from Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon, and for me, this prompt is less about the specific writing it directly produces as it is about the thinking-and attitude-that comes out of it.
Prompt Rationale
When I first introduce this prompt, some students struggle a little bit. They can appreciate what Baker has to say about how we often think of the worst things that happened to us first, often forgetting the things that made the day a little bit better. I think we can all agree that adolescents seem particularly susceptible to this type of negative thinking (perhaps this is why as a teenager, the worst question my parents could ask me after school was How was your day? ), but they don't have to be.

When I use this prompt, I use it every day for a week, sometimes two, and then I revisit throughout the rest of the year. Many students actually tell me that they find themselves thinking about what they'll write for their "best thing" notebook entry before they get to class. Once students begin the habit of seeing "the best thing" instead of the worst, they feel their spirits lift a little bit, they feel more grateful-and I think we could all benefit from feeling a little more gratitude in our lives.
Possible connections to reading/writing

Again, a longer, more polished piece.

Start a #bestthing movement by posting Tumblr-esque images throughout school/social media (Canva and Adobe Spark would be perfect tools for this project).

Organize "pop-up" mini-TED talks in which students share their "best thing."

Apply to a character analysis: what's the best thing in this character's life right now?

Related mentor texts
I hope you find some of these prompts useful! What do you think? Questions? Do you have any favorite writer's notebook prompts? Please share!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
I have a confession. I didn't always use a writer's notebook, either as teacher and especially as a student. It's hard to remember what that was like-Where did I keep all my thoughts? How did I keep track of it all? Writer's notebooks-or journals-were something I remember learning about in graduate school, and while I...

# data[].attributes.body
Sarah Zerwin explains how the writers notebook is an indispensable tool in her AP course.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The writer's notebook is a key piece to a workshop classroom.

Whatever you call it-response notebook, reader's/writer's notebook-the idea is that it becomes an extension of a student's brain, the place to work out ideas, reflect, plan, wonder, ponder, keep track of, etc.

I'm still learning as a writer's notebook user myself. I'm filling them more quickly than I used to, which makes me happy, but I'm constantly discovering how to use the tool best for my own growth as a reader, writer, and thinker. It has helped this year to do some thinking alongside Stevi Quate, one of my personal teacher mentors (she was my secondary English methods professor back in 1995 and is now my colleague in the Colorado Writing Project-see her post about launching the writer's notebook). I am definitely still learning as a writer's notebook user.

And I am definitely still learning about how to invite my students to use them most meaningfully. Here's what I did this past year in AP Lit to invite my students to develop extensions of their brain in the form of a composition notebook.
1) Make access easy.
Every August, I hit the local Target when they have just stocked school supplies and I purchase 50 composition notebooks at the cost of 50 cents each. I offer these to my students-they can have them and throw 50 cents at me if they wish. One of my very first assignments in my class is to show up with a writer's notebook in-hand. Having them right there for students makes this super easy.
2) Make writer's notebooks a central focus.
I have a set of learning objectives for each of my classes, but there's always one goal about writer's notebooks. My students choose three focus objectives for themselves each semester. They track their growth toward their chosen objectives. Making one of these a goal about writer's notebooks shows students that they matter, that they're important, that they will be a central component of the course.

I never walk into class without my own writer's notebook. I want students to see it as an appendage of their teacher. I use it constantly-I make lists, keep track of things, take notes on class discussion, make plans-I tell my students what's going on in my writer's notebook and even show them sometimes. If it's important enough that I'm asking them to get serious about a writer's notebook, then I should be doing the same.

Different this year, I told my students that the writer's notebook is the one thing that they need for class (that and whatever novel we're discussing together). I wanted it to be THE thing that held all of their resources and information for class-no additional binder or folder needed. After discovering biology teacher Lee Ferguson's resources on interactive lab notebooks, I was able to show my students how to make pockets to hold onto any resources I give them and to file away their timed writes.

I also frequently provided items on half sheets of paper and asked students to tape or glue them into their writer's notebooks-the learning objectives for the semester for example. Then they could circle or highlight their chosen objectives and do some annotating right there about why they chose those particular learning objectives for themselves. I also loved giving them poems to tape in and write all over.

Another new thing I tried this year was providing colorful tape and tabs and stickers for students. I created eight "buckets"-one for each pod of students in each class. I stashed them away in the closet in my classroom and pulled them out on the days I knew they would need them, but my students knew that they were welcome to grab a bucket at any time if they needed something for their writer's notebook. I found colorful masking tape and washi tape online for the best prices. And my students' favorite thing beside the tape was those little, round, brightly-colored price tag stickers that you might buy if you're having a garage sale. They used them all over their notebooks for a variety of purposes. The bowls came from Target-less than 2 bucks each and in our school colors.

I was lucky this past year to teach all of my classes in one classroom. I'm not so lucky next year-I'll have three classrooms. I haven't decided yet if I'll make three sets of writer's notebook buckets or shuttle them around on a cart...
3) Ask students to complete writer's notebook tasks that invite them to do the kind of thinking work that would make the notebook an extension of their brain.
Here's my AP class learning objective regarding writer's notebooks: The student maintains a vibrant writer's notebook for writing informally and creatively to explore initial responses and emerging ideas about literature. It becomes a visible extension of the mind. I developed writer's notebook tasks with this goal in mind in order to show students what this work looks like. These tasks generally fell into a few categories:

To help us think about the books we studied: From Socratic Seminar tickets to Socratic seminar notes to notes on class discussions to free writing in response to the reading, I asked students to use the writer's notebook as home base for all of this. Take a look here at how a few students approached this.

To help with the writing we did: Students used writer's notebooks to prepare for timed writes and to prepare for the AP exam. They also did a lot of thinking/planning for the semester-long piece of writing. See a few examples here.

To track growth toward students' individual learning objectives: A few weeks into the semester last fall after students had gotten used to what the work of the class looked like, I had a day in class where students chose their learning objectives and we talked about how they could use their writer's notebooks to track their progress and growth. Students did a variety of things, but my favorite was the book case that one student drew, each shelf a unique set of books toward a certain reading goal she had, particular titles written on the spines, books colored in when she read them. Awesome! I also saw calendars where students made regular notes about their learning goal progress and pages where they collected evidence of how they were doing. I blocked out time in class for students to show each other how they were using their writer's notebook to track their learning so they could steal each other's awesome ideas.

To stay organized: Students made tables of contents and tabbed sections and numbered pages and clearly labeled items and even used different colored pens for different purposes. I made a few general suggestions for how to approach staying organized and talked through my own strategies.

To make the writer's notebook totally yours: Whenever I have a big thought I want to hold onto, I write it in huge letters on a blank page and draw a cloud around it, for example. Students did a range of things here, from margin notes to drawings to photos. I loved this margin note from a student who challenged herself to regularly annotate what she had written to capture her thinking about it all:

This was in the margins on a page where she was writing down her answers for some AP exam multiple choice practice that we were doing together in class. I love the simple honesty of this, how it captures what she was thinking at that moment. Yes, the work we ask of students in AP Lit IS hard-close reading of complex text for the purpose of articulating your own interpretive analysis of it? Difficult indeed.

And I'm excited to try out some sketchnoting-great resource here for students that came across my Twitter feed this week:

My #Sketchnoting for Non-Artists resources from today's #EdTechTeam session https://t.co/XMDU14RpDO #Sketch50 #PassTheSketchnote

- (@wterral) June 1, 2018

Assessment
If you've read any of my blog series on grading, you'll not be surprised that I use no rubric, assign no points, or even "grade" writer's notebooks at all. Having and using a writer's notebook is a requirement in my class that I monitor every single day in my class. But I never collect writer's notebooks.

I consider the writer's notebook the student's individual space. The very first year I used them years ago, I collected them every so often figuring that I needed to make sure students were using them for what I was asking them to use them for. This was also a few years before the moment I stopped grading traditionally, so I was in a different mind frame about assessment and grading-needing to hold students accountable for the work via points and grades.

But here's what I noticed that first year when I collected students' writer's notebooks: they didn't seem very authentic. They didn't seem like the students were really using them in genuinely meaningful ways. The reasons for this are many I'm sure, especially that I wasn't very good at inviting students to make them meaningful. I'm learning and getting better at this. There's something powerful for students when I tell them that the writer's notebook is THEIR space. They control it. They design it. They determine how integral it will become to their work for the class.

That's not to say that I never look at them. I look at their writer's notebooks all the time. I assign tasks periodically that I need to check. In a conference conversation, we might look together at something in the notebook and talk about it. Every so often, I invite students to put their writer's notebooks under the document camera so the class can see something there. I don't collect the notebooks, but I pay attention to how students are using them from day to day. (Check out my post on sharing the feedback load with students for a fuller discussion of what student writing I DO collect, read, and respond to.)

At semester's end and at each 6-week grading period, my students self reflect/self assess toward the three learning objectives they've chosen for the semester. Their semester grades are based in part on their documented growth toward those three objectives. For students who have chosen the writer's notebook objective, I get extensive reflection on how the tool has been working for them. Here are some examples. The first speaks to the importance of a writer's notebook as a place for students to work through their thoughts, especially if they're reticent to speak up in class:

At the start of this semester, I wrote in my writer's notebook that I wanted to use my notebook to "write about ideas of my own" because I am often too intimidated to discuss my own ideas about books in front of the whole class. I have found my writer's notebook to be a valuable space where I can write about and expand on my own ideas without feeling nervous to share my ideas with the entire class. I turned my writer's notebook into a extremely helpful resource that I have used throughout the semester to keep track of my thoughts about books, as well as a space to plan for and brainstorm about timed writes.

And from another student-I love the clear focus here on making the notebook more relevant to her thinking:

Last semester was the first time that I was able to have a journal I stuck to and filled out almost everyday and I was able to carry that into this semester as well. I think the main area of improvement came in the relevance of everything I wrote down this semester. I did a better job of recognizing what I already knew and wrote down things that really mattered to me. Likewise I tried to recognize what I didn't know and needed to work on, writing it down more thoroughly. I continued to take extensive notes for socratic seminars and book discussions. I continued to write free writes and poetry in my blank pages and my favorite part of my writer's notebook this semester would definitely be that. I think this learning target has really helped me with organization and understanding what I do and do not already know.

This student describes how she went beyond note taking and did some reflective writing to learn from what she had written down in class:

I have put a lot of work into maintaining a writer's notebook that illustrates my ideas. In my writer's notebook, I have jotted down my interpretations of class text and taken very detailed notes for all of our class discussions and socratic seminars. For example, for each of the discussions I have jotted down important points that other people have started and then made individual interpretations of those thoughts, such as making theme statements based off of presented ideas. It has also been a place where I can store class handouts and mt timed writes. In having all the information I need for this class in one place, I have had a very easy time looking back on my notes and handouts and using them for other activities. Overall, my writer's notebook has been a very useful tool for me regarding my growth as both a reader and a writer.

This student articulates growth from having to force himself to use the notebook to reach for it when he needed ideas and talks about how much this helped him for the AP exam:

I chose this as another one of my learning objectives because I wanted to have a vibrant writer's notebook that I could constantly reach for when I had an idea, or was struggling to find one. To better understand class discussions, various texts, and possible themes, I found it very helpful to write it all down. This really helped me track my growth and understand what I needed to improve on in all subject matter. I initially wanted to work on this learning objective because at the beginning of the year, I felt like I was forcing myself to work in my writer's notebook. I did not want that to be the case. Fortunately, I now recognize the effectiveness of journaling your thoughts. In addition, keeping an extensive writer's notebook better prepared me for the AP test at the end of the year. Through collecting data on all of our books and discussions, I was able to go into the test with something in mind to write about.

I aim to do a better and better job each year of figuring out how to invite my students to make their writer's notebooks the thinking space they need to support this difficult but worthy work. What are your strategies?
This post is part of a blog series on teaching AP Lit with readers/writers workshop. Click here to see the entire series.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Writer's Notebooks in AP Lit #WorkshopWorksForAP

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The writer's notebook is a key piece to a workshop classroom. Whatever you call it-response notebook, reader's/writer's notebook-the idea is that it becomes an extension of a student's brain, the place to work out ideas, reflect, plan, wonder, ponder, keep track of, etc. I'm still learning as a writer's notebook user myself.

# data[].attributes.headline
Notebook Time: Getting Ready for the Summer 

# data[].attributes.subject
Notebook Time: Getting Ready for the Summer 

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
You guys: it's all happening!

On Wednesday, we will release our first 100 Days of Summer Writing - a slide deck of 100 slides to inspire writing over the summer, instructions for how to participate yourself, and instructions for how to get your students involved. Over the next two weeks, the writers here at Moving Writers will be sharing posts designed to give you ideas for using this in your summer assignments, challenging your students to commit words to paper (or screen) on their break, and to pump you up to join a growing community of teacher writers.

If you already use Notebook Time with your students, they will be ready to jump in with the 100 Days. But, if you don't already use Notebook Time with your students, it's not too late! If you can give up just ONE class period before summer break, you can introduce your kids to Notebook Time and get them ready to write this summer!

Today, what I'm sharing here today is a lesson plan that I will be using in week or so with the sixth graders in my building who have not yet practiced notebook time but who will be invited to join in the summer writing bonanza!

Notebook Time Isn't About Crafting Beautiful Writing

Before we get to the lesson, though, let's chat for a quick second about Notebook Time in general. We have a number of posts about this on Moving Writers, but here's the very most important thing to remember and impress upon your students: this isn't about creating whole, polished pieces of writing. This is about 10 minutes of risk-free PLAY. This is about building muscles and building stamina.

Notebook time is about trying something new.

Sometimes it's great. Sometimes it's awful. Both outcomes are a success here.

To enjoy this, students need the invitation to simply try - to create bad writing, to create nonsense, to create a terrible drawing, to write a nonsensical metaphor. And we are the ones who have to issue that invitation explicitly. Otherwise, this will become one more assignment. Homework by another name.

This lesson should take you around 45ish minutes. It will help students understand what Notebook Time is, why we do it, and some of the possible outcomes. They will also get a chance to try a couple of Notebook Time invitations from the 100 Days of Summer Writing!

The Lesson: Getting Ready for 100 Days of Summer Writing

Begin by asking students what you would need to do if you wanted to build muscle and get stronger?

( Students will say you need to exercise regularly, you need to lift weights, you need to lift increasingly heavy weights over time. They might even suggest some cross-training to build different muscle groups, etc.)

2. Tell students that writing is exactly the same - to become better writers, we need to build bigger, stronger muscles! We need to write regularly, we need to write increasingly more challenging pieces, we need to write a variety of things! And this is what Notebook Time can help us do; it's writer exercise!

3. Tell students that when we do Notebook Time, we use a variety of mentor texts to inspire our thinking and writing - images, illustrations, charts, maps, statistics, poems, sentences, passages from books, etc. The purpose of each one is to help us find new ideas and try new things in our writing.

4. Share the chart on Slide 5. (Pictured right). Student can copy this into their notebooks or you could print smaller versions for them to glue into their notebooks!

As you talk about this with students, emphasize that these questions are meant to stimulate their thinking - they are not meant to answer every question! This isn't a checklist! If one idea keeps them going and thinking and writing for 8 minutes, that's great! But if they need a nudge, these questions are here for them!

Additionally, if a writer ever wants to go totally off-chart and use the Notebook Time invitation to do their own thing, write in their own unique direction, they should!

5. Next, tell students that you want them to see what this looks like in action!

Set a timer for seven minutes, and put yourself out there. Project the image while you write on the board. Perhaps while you are working, your students can be jotting down what they see YOU do during Notebook Time. Here's what you ideally want them to see:

Writing out your thinking rather than stopping to think and THEN writing.

Filling the time with WORDS.

Messy thinking - scratch outs, incorrect spelling.

Tangents are good and sometimes surprisingly productive! Often, that's where the big ideas come from!

Revision - you don't only write forward. Sometimes you pause, go back, add something in, change a word, and then move on.

6. After you have modeled, have students share what they noticed. If you can afford a little extra time, you might even chart their noticings on chart paper/in their notebooks - this can be a go-to guide for their own writing this summer! Title your chart "Notebook Time Writers ..." and then bullet what a writer does during notebook time.

7. Now it's time for everyone to go together! Share the map from Slide 9. Direct students back to the chart of questions in their notebooks, and solicit thinking from the class. Write what you hear students saying on the board!

Again, set a timer for 7 minutes. This is important because our best thinking typically comes when we have been in the writing zone for a few minutes. If writers stop when the first stream of ideas stop, they'll never get to the really good stuff! Push students to fill the time with their thinking. If they have a lull, jump in to keep the thinking-and-writing going!

8. Congratulate the group! You've done it! Ask for any new observations about what a writer does during Notebook Time.

9. Now they are ready to try one on their own! Remind them of the things they have observed about Notebook Time writing, the chart to support them in their notebooks. Set the timer. As students write, write yourself! Modeling the messiness of new thinking in writing is powerful for students and demystifies the idea that writing is easy for some people. It's never easy.

10. After students have worked through the Lin-Manuel Miranda Twitter-poem, read what you have written on the board. Ask for other volunteers to share.

11. Congratulate your writers again - this is all it takes! They've done the thing, so they can do it again! Ask for any lingering observations or questions! They are READY!

***

Alright! That's all there is to it! Join us for the next few weeks before summer as we help YOU and your students build writing muscles all summer long! We can't wait to unveil our 100 Days of Summer Writing on Wednesday!
How have you introduced Notebook Time to uninitiated students in the past? What works to get your students started with Notebook Time? Leave us a comment below, find us on Facebook, or Tweet me @RebekahODell1.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
100 Days of Summer Writing: Introducing Notebook Time

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
You guys: it's all happening! On Wednesday, we will release our first 100 Days of Summer Writing -- a slide deck of 100 slides to inspire writing over the summer, instructions for how to participate yourself, and instructions for how to get your students involved. Over the next two weeks, the writers here at Moving...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Discover recipes, home ideas, style inspiration and other ideas to try.

# data[].attributes.body
Joan Didion's essay on the WNB

# data[].attributes.body
Thoughts from Three Teachers Talk

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
It's that magical time of year when my writer's notebook is almost full, and I get to start a new one. I love setting up my notebook, personalizing it, giving it value. But I love, nearly as much, to look back at a full notebook-and today I want to share mine with you.

I'll preface this overload of snapshots with a caveat that my sharing is unusual in terms of the writer's notebook. Whether we ask our students to use these tools as playgrounds, workshops, or repositories, notebooks belong to students. Ownership is key if our students are to take on the identities of writers. This means that for some, a notebook is private, while for others, sharing is essential.

So, with that said, let's take a walk through my notebook-and, so we can see many other examples, please share what your notebook is full of on Twitter with #whatsinanotebook!

First, personalization and inspiration are key.

The first few pages of my notebook always contain photos, a tracing of my hand with some goals, a heart map, or some other kind of writing territory or prompt. Whenever I'm stumped about what to write, I return to these first few pages to remind myself of the topics I need to mine.

From there, the variety begins.

I always write beside my students, so my notebook is generally peppered with quickwrites or "write into the days" from NWP.

These are often the roughest drafts of posts that land on TTT, like this page, which morphed into this post. For my students, quickwrites are often seed prompts that lead to longer compositions. Just as often, though, they remain untouched: an essential part of building fluency and stamina and the identity of a writer with many starts and stops.

My notebook is also full of poetry that I write beside or around.

I get my poems every day via email from the Writer's Almanac. In addition to just being inspiring and enjoyable to do, this active reading of poetry makes me more aware of wordplay, themes in literature and in my life, and a new perspective.

I also write in response to quotes from books, TED talks, poems, or anywhere.

This helps me to unpack a quote that strikes me for its craft, content, or both-students, too.

Gluing in artifacts to write beside is also powerful for me.

These serve not just as reminders of who and what is important to me, but a lovely time capsule to show me what was happening in my life at the time when I return to look at my notebook in future years.

There are also things I'm attempting to make connections between, but perhaps never do...

(This might go under "things I abandon.")

Rants that should probably be left in the dark...

(You can tell by my handwriting that I was ticked, here.)

Things I abandon...

Sometimes I mean to write a bit more, and never do, so I add some squiggles and doodles to fill up the white space.

It's important to remind students that it's okay to abandon pieces of writing ...we abandon books, don't we?

...and random doodles, drawings, and in-the-moment jots and notes.

The last spread of my notebook is always my what-to-read page...

(I keep my lengthy read, currently reading, and TBR list on GoodReads, so this page functions more as a ThriftBooks shopping list.)

...and the very last page is always my list of words and phrases that strike me as unusual.

I jot these as I find them in books, poetry, or conversation. Sometimes I look up definitions of these words; sometimes I already know what they mean, but just like them. I ask students to keep this page, and twice monthly we visit it and do something with our lists.

As you can see, there's really no "order" to my notebook-no sections other than those crucial first and last pages-but that's just what works for me. I taught seniors most recently, and found that they didn't require the structure of a multi-sectioned writer's notebook, but when I worked with 8th graders, they most definitely needed a little guidance.

This is just a guide, an inspiration, and an invitation-to not judge me for my wonders about the woes of motherhood, my consternation about teaching topics, or my completely unhealthy obsession with expensive writing utensils (Precise V5 pens...thanks, Amy...and PaperMate Flair markers are my top picks).

Please use this to help you craft a vision for the possibilities notebooks afford in helping us build fluency, gain confidence, and take on the identity of WRITER, and feel free to reach out to any of us with questions or wonders you have about the magic of writer's notebooks.
Share with us, please, what your notebook looks like on Twitter using #whatsinanotebook! Shana Karnes teaches sophomore, junior, and senior preservice teachers at West Virginia University. She finds joy in all things learning, love, and literature as she teaches, mothers, and sings her way through life. Follow Shana on Twitter at @litreader or read more of her writing on the WVCTE Best Practices blog.
Tagged: how to set up a notebook, writer's notebook, Writer's Notebooks

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
It's that magical time of year when my writer's notebook is almost full, and I get to start a new one. I love setting up my notebook, personalizing it, giving it value. But I love, nearly as much, to look back at a full notebook--and today I want to share mine with you.

# data[].attributes.body
An idea from Three Teachers Talk

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Tom Romano calls writer's notebooks "playgrounds, workshops, repositories" in Write What Matters. As such, the writer's notebook employed in a workshop classroom is much more than a place to store drafts, brainstorm ideas, or take notes. It becomes a sacred space that is personal, meaningful, and enjoyable. To fill it with writing and wordplay that spurs a love of language, I like to write around various artifacts in my notebooks, and urge my students to do so too.

Write around a poem - In this lesson, inspired by advice from Penny Kittle (she told me her writing got more beautiful when she read poems more intentionally), I ask students to cut out a poem and glue it into their notebooks. This activity can change with its purpose-sometimes students can respond to the language in a poem, sometimes they can write from a line, and sometimes they can work to analyze the text for literary devices and figurative elements. The act, though, of gluing a poem into our notebooks keeps beautiful language at the center of our work, made visible when we flip backwards through our pages.

Write around a picture - Like Amy, I like to see my students' notebooks full of pictures. I ask students to bring in or print photos of any sort, then write descriptions, craft imagined dialogue, or narrate a memory the photo evokes. In addition to being personal and meaningful, these quickwrite activities often serve as jumping off points for longer pieces of writing.

Write around a note - My friends and I are big note-writers, and I've always had the compulsion to write "thank you for your thank you note" notes (maybe that's just me, but Lisa is a dork so she might do it too!). Because that's socially awkward, I like to glue notes into my notebook and respond to them that way. I also have students glue in their Bless, Press, Address responses from other students, or my own written feedback (like Amy's Silent Sticky Notes), and respond to it in their notebooks.

Write around an object - Whenever I unearth something meaningful from the depths of my glove box, I like to glue it into my notebook and write around it. I have Starbucks

sleeves, library cards, ticket stubs, and even an old necklace glued into my notebook, surrounded by writing. In this era of electronic communication, I think it's important for students to put physical objects into their notebooks-I still have shoeboxes full of notes from my friends in high school, and I like their tangible power more than just a series of saved text messages.

Write around an idea - A written version of the Four Corners activity, students write down a statement in the center of a page and then exercise some critical thinking around the statement. The top left corner represents the "strongly agree" perspective, the top right is "agree," bottom left is "disagree," and bottom right is "strongly disagree." I've also experimented with just having students respond to the statement in general, but I like the Four Corners because it forces them to consider multiple perspectives. Mostly recently, I asked my preservice teachers to respond to the idea that "Teachers are responsible for 100% of their students' learning" using the Four Corners method-I can't wait to see their responses when I collect notebooks next week.
What ideas or artifacts might you have your students write around? Please share in the comments!
Tagged: Poetry, quickwrites, Readers Writers Workshop, Writer's Notebooks, Writer's Notebooks

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Tom Romano calls writer's notebooks "playgrounds, workshops, repositories" in Write What Matters. As such, the writer's notebook employed in a workshop classroom is much more than a place to store drafts, brainstorm ideas, or take notes. It becomes a sacred space that is personal, meaningful, and enjoyable.

# data[].attributes.body
How authentic is the WNB? This site will answer that questions.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
If you've lived a few years on this earth, you must have figured out by now that your brain is unreliable.

It forgets, distorts, and betrays you every time you let it. Where are your keys, and why are you watching giraffe fails on youtube when you were supposed to be searching for that killer recipe?

Luckily, it's possible to have an external brain - one that doesn't forget your million-dollar ideas, notes, doodles, and book ideas. Here at manuscript we are hopelessly in love with pocket notebooks, and craft our notebooks to look as beautiful as can be .

Join us as we take a peek inside the notebooks of remarkable people across all industries. We're sure you'll be surprised how similar they are to your own scribbles and doodles.

"I've never been a very prolific person, so when creativity flows, it flows. I find myself scribbling on little notepads and pieces of loose paper, which results in a very small portion of my writings to ever show up in true form."

On Kurt Cobain's Journals ( buy it on amazon here) you'll find the tragic and brilliant reflections of a beautiful and disturbed mind. See his 6 points on life advice above, and his scathing critique of commercialism below.

"And the idea of just wandering off to a cafe with a notebook and writing and seeing where that takes me for awhile is just bliss."

What does it take to change the landscape of modern literature and create one of the most universally praised literary works of all time? For JK Rowling, it's organization with a dash of penmanship. We can't stop obsessing about her manual plot spreadsheet detailing the fifth Harry Potter book, The Order of the Phoenix.

This page covers chapters 13 - 24, from prophecies to romantic subplots - it's all there. Another cool factoid: Jo considers herself a collector of names, and has said she has notebooks full of them.

"You must begin by making notes. You may have to make notes for years.... When you think of something, when you recall something, put it where it belongs. Put it down when you think of it. You may never recapture it quite as vividly the second time."

Gatsby's author was a notorious daily scribbler, recording everything from his stray thoughts and observations to his famed financial ledger, where he recorded all earnings from his literary works:

His entries were organised into categories such as "Descriptions of girls," "Conversations overheard," and "Feelings and Emotions."

He was also a big fan of indexing, like we are. If you really want the most of your writings, it's important to index:

Check out the first page of The Great Gatsby handwritten by Fitzgerald himself below. Gems like these are what keep us busy jotting down everything in our manuscripts.

"I belong to this notebook and this pencil."

It's hard to think of a more passionate student of pocket notebooks than Pa Hemingway, and it's easy to see why. The infamous writer filled notebook after notebook in Parisian cafes and all his travels and adventures.

Above: a scrapped passage in one of the notebooks used to write The Sun Also Rises.

A packing list for a trip to Cabo Blanco, Peru.

Papa's notebooks were not only creative outlets for what would become his masterpieces. He jotted down everything, true to the notion that the cure for an unreliable - and often drunk - brain is having an external brain.

He was also known for drafting angry letters to people he disagreed with that were never sent, venting his own anger in the pages of his notebooks, another great addition to the many uses of pocket notebooks.

It's hard to think of the word 'cute' when thinking about Ernest Hemingway, but the below note on one of his first notebook when he was in elementary school is just too adorable.

Note how little Hemingway declares his name and his intentions to "travel and write." Mission accomplished, Pa.

"Let me live, love, and say it well in good sentences."

Sylvia Plath's original and dated manuscript draft of Stings.

Sylvia embraced doodling all around her journals and notebooks. Above, she describes her nightmare about being chased by a hot dog and a marshmallow. Sadly, this did not make it into The Bell Jar.

On this journal page, she describes the Yaddo furnishings on Smith memorandum stationary.

Twain's life long relationship with his pocket notebooks began when he was a teen training to become a cub pilot of a steamboat on the Mississippi. His mentor Horace Bixby said to him, "You must get a little memorandum-book, and every time I tell you a thing, put it down right away."

Above: Twain's first notebook when he was 21 in the Mississippi.

A page from A Family Sketch: a manuscript tribute to Twain's daughter, who passed away at 24. The manuscript contains intimate details of Twain's household, including servants.

" To me, typing is like work. Writing with a pen is like playing."

Neil Gaiman likes notebooks so much that he writes entire novels on them! For Stardust, he says: "In my head I wanted it to be written in the same way it would have been in the 1920s, so I bought a big notepad and Waterman pen."

If you still haven't checked it out, Neil writes extensively about his writing process and habits in his blog. Get schooled.
Tell us, who's your notebook soulmate from this list? Tweet us below!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Inside the Notebooks of Artists, Writers, and Creators

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
If you've lived a few years on this earth, you must have figured out by now that your brain is unreliable. It forgets, distorts, and betrays you every time you let it. Where are your keys, and why are you watching giraffe fails on youtube when you were supposed to be searching for that killer recipe?

# data[].attributes.body
A blog from Moving Writers

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
We are singing Hamilton as we read today's fantastic, deep-dive guest post from Scott Bayer, an English Language Arts (ELA) Instructional Specialist for grades 6-12 in Montgomery County, Maryland. He has taught high school English for 16 years and is passionate about creating meaningful learning experiences for students, teaching a more inclusive reading list, and developing student...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
I've kept a notebook for 20 years, but the triumph of my year has been, for the first time, keeping not just a logbook, but a daily diary. ( This is what it looks like.) I keep looking at the stack and thinking, "Okay, but where's the book?"

Almost every writer will tell you how important it is to keep a daily diary or notebook, but very few emphasize how important it is, if you want to publish, to have a system for going back through those personal notebooks and diaries and turning them into public writing.

One of the things I like about Ryan Holiday's notecard system, the one he learned from his mentor, Robert Greene, is its emphasis, not just on taking notes, but on going back and revisiting your notes: after you take notes in a book, you let the book sit for a week, and then you go back through the book and transfer your notes to notecards, and then you go back through your notecards and find themes, and then you go back through the themes and assemble a book, etc. There's a kind of constant creative revisiting that goes on, one that leads to new ideas, and new writing. (Re-vision is re-seeing.)

This year, randomly, without planning it, I've become familiar with the notebooks of 3 different writers: Leonardo da Vinci, thanks to Walter Isaacson's bio, Henry David Thoreau, thanks to Laura Walls' terrific bio and NYRB's beautiful reader edition, and David Sedaris, thanks to his newly published diaries. All three have much to teach.

It could be argued that Leonardo's notebooks were his life's masterpiece. Over and over again, Isaacson points out that Leonardo jotted down discoveries and hunches that other scientists wouldn't confirm for hundreds of years. Unfortunately for the wider world, Leonardo's notebook was all about exploration, and he didn't put much, if any, effort into actually sharing his findings. If he had, he'd probably have changed the history of science.

It could be argued for Thoreau, too, that his true masterpiece was his journal, which he used, like Leonardo, to explore his world, his philosophy, and his amateur science. Unlike Leonardo, however, his journals were self-consciously journals, daily records of his life and thought tied to dates, and Thoreau mined his journals for books and lectures, then used his public lectures as a way of working up material for articles and books.

Though Sedaris might seem like the outlier here, he works in a Thoreau-like way (even though he despises the verb "journaling" and finds it "creepy"). I find him the most instructive and worth stealing from in the batch, if only because his process has been thoroughly documented, not just by others, but by himself. His essay, "Day In, Day Out," from Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls, summarizes his method as "You jot things down during the day, then tomorrow morning you flesh them out." That sounds simple, but he actually has a robust system for generating material. Here are the steps:

1) He carries around a little reporter's notebook and is constantly jotting down funny things he notices and overhears. "Everybody's got an eye for something," he says. "The only difference is that I carry around a notebook in my front pocket. I write everything down, and it helps me recall."

2) The next morning, he takes a look at his notes to refresh his memory, and then types out his diary on the computer. (In the old "embarrassing" days, he'd write on placemats, then in hardcover sketchbooks, in which he'd collage and draw, and then a typewriter, etc.)

3) He prints out his entries and binds them with special covers. In the recent " Visual Compendium " of his diaries, he notes: "I generally bind four volumes a year, so if at age 59, I have 153, by the time I'm my father's age-should I live to be 93-I'll have 289. If I die much earlier, at 75, say, I'll still have 217, which isn't bad."

Maybe most importantly, he keeps a separate diary index, which numbers hundreds of pages by itself, in which he "lists only items that might come in handy someday." A few entries:

Volume 87, 5/15: Lisa puts a used Kotex through the wash, and her husband mistakes it for a shoulder pad.

Volume 128, 1/23: Told by saleswoman that the coat I'm trying on is waterproof "if it only rains a little."

"Over a given three-month period," he writes, "there may be fifty bits worth noting, and six that, with a little work, I might consider reading out." (It is not clear to me at what frequency he re-reads his diaries to keep this index. If I had to bet, I'd say he updates the index when he has a new book bound.)

4) He will then read selections from his diaries out-loud, live to his audiences. (This is actually how he got his start - he was reading from his diary in Chicago when he met Ira Glass, who gave him his break-out radio gig with " Santaland Diaries.") He has a pencil and a marginalia system for recording audience reactions: Laughs get a check mark, silence gets a skull.

5) He'll go back and rework the stories based on what he's learned from reading live.

So far, I have stolen the first two steps. As for the third, I have no index for the notebooks (unless you count my logbook), and no way, really, of knowing what's in them, a condition worsened by my terrible memory, and the fact that one of the reasons I like keeping a diary, as Henry Jones, Sr., said, is because I don't have to remember what's in it. I plan on starting an index in the coming weeks, and updating it for each new notebook.

As for steps 4 and 5, the live reading and revision, that's what this blog is for. It's the place where I take private thoughts and turn them public, see what the reaction is, if any, and then weave what I've learned back into the work.

Onwards!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The importance of re-reading notebooks - Austin Kleon

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Almost every writer will tell you how important it is to keep a daily diary or notebook, but very few emphasize how important it is, if you want to publish, to have a system for going back through those personal notebooks and diaries and turning them into public writing.

# data[].attributes.body
Some interesting ideas for a content specific notebook. I'd have to do some serious thinking though about how this could be used specifically for a writers notebook. What do you think? http://www.teachingteensinthe21st.com/search/label/Interactive%20Student%20Notebook

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
"I tell my piano the things I used to tell you."
-Frédéric Chopin

Wake is such a perfect word for the moment. Wake: a watch, a vigil, after something has died. Wake: a trail of disturbed water left by some unstoppable craft. Wake: the aftermath. Wake: to stir, to be roused from sleep.

In the wake of all of this, I've been trying to stay away from Twitter, trying to visit the bliss station, trying to be alone with my thoughts. But my curse is that I can't seem to have thoughts without speaking them. I need to speak to think and to know what I'm thinking. This can be potentially disastrous in public, and in private, it puts an undue burden on my loved ones, because conversation is like the mood slime in Ghostbusters: to speak thoughts is to transfer thoughts, and the listener, no matter what, always absorbs something. (Why else are shrinks so expensive?) My wife and I try to save our conversation for the open air on our morning walks, the idea being that most of any bad energy we release will be carried away by the wind. But it doesn't always work out that way. And, for both of us, as much as we want to stay light, to be the light or reflect it, our thoughts have, not inappropriately, gotten darker in the past months.

So I've been spending more and more time in the pages of my notebook. Talking in black ink. Letting the pages absorb any poison. Scratching out thoughts if I can't stand to look at them. Underlining the thoughts I want to save, to share, maybe even, God forbid, tweet.

It's a simple idea that I said over and over on the journal tour: a notebook is a good place to have bad ideas. It's also a safe space to share your secrets. To think the unthinkable. To say the unsayable...

If you're struggling, too, consider getting a paper notebook. (I'm happy to sell you mine, but any cheap drugstore one will do.) Spend some time with it every day. Fill it with your bad thoughts, your bad ideas. Tell it all the things you shouldn't tell Twitter. It won't judge you, troll you, or talk back to you. It won't spy on you, ping you, or notify you. When you're done with it, you can burn it for heat, or you can save it for your children, so they know what it was like.

(A page from The Steal Like An Artist Journal. Perhaps I should've added "jailed" or "deported.")

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
"I tell my piano the things I used to tell you." -Frédéric Chopin Wake is such a perfect word for the moment. Wake: a watch, a vigil, after something has died. Wake: a trail of disturbed water left by some unstoppable craft. Wake: the aftermath. Wake: to stir, to be roused from sleep.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Writers' Notebooks: Alive and Well in the World

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Animoto turns your photos and video clips into professional video slideshows in minutes. Fast, free and shockingly simple - we make awesome easy.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Ever wondered why history's great minds including Isaac Newton, Abraham Lincoln, Andy Warhol, Leonardo Da Vinci, Marcus Aurelius, Charles Darwin, Winston Churchill, Benjamin Franklin, Ernest Hemingway, George Bernard Shaw and Maya Angelou would spend so much of their precious time writing things that will never be seen by another soul?

Jim Rohn says, "If you're serious about becoming a wealthy, powerful, sophisticated, healthy, influential, cultured, and unique individual, keep a journal."

Many famous creatives, writers, innovators and original thinkers of our generation keep journals- for many, it is a creative necessity, for others, a place for exploration, and for some an art form in and of itself.

But you don't have to be creative, scientist or an innovator for this practice to be worthwhile.

Journaling helps you prioritize, clarify thinking, and accomplish your most important tasks, over urgent busy work.

Thinking in writing has this magical quality of clarifying your thoughts.

Tim Ferriss calls journaling the deloading phase in life. He explains, "I use it as a tool to clarify my thinking and goals, much as Kevin Kelly (one of my favorite humans) does. The paper is like a photography darkroom for my mind."

Get used to the pen again!

Reflective writing has also been shown to improve decision-making and critical thinking in a number of medical professions.

Michael Hyatt says "What happens to us is not as important as the meaning we assign to it. Journaling helps sort this out."

Journals give you a record of the progress you've made toward your goals to keep you motivated in the long slog of actually reaching them.

"As part of your morning creative burst, use your journal to review and hone your daily to-do list. Review and hone your life vision and big picture goals" says Benjamin Hardy.

Numerous studies (of the scientifically rigorous variety) have shown that personal writing can help people better cope with stressful events, relieve anxiety, boost immune cell activity

Judy Willis MD, a neurologist, and former classroom teacher explains, "The practice of writing can enhance the brain's intake, processing, retaining, and retrieving of information... it promotes the brain's attentive focus ... boosts long-term memory, illuminates patterns, gives the brain time for reflection, and when well-guided, is a source of conceptual development and stimulus of the brain's highest cognition."

What you write, you control. You don't have to spend your whole morning writing, but the only rule is to write continuously. Be consistent to make the most of it.

An optimal approach to start Journaling

Start each morning by identifying tasks, goals for the day.

Only write a few bullet points (2/3) to make it easier to start and make progress. You can mix personal and work stuff together.

By keeping each day's entry short and simple, you are making it so easy to journal without excuses.

At the end of each day, look back at what you accomplished, what you learned, what you want to follow-up on tomorrow, and what you want to pursue tomorrow.

Start small. Make micro-commitment each day to get started.

Don't make a huge commitment. Try it for 30 days. Spend just 5- 10 minutes a day reflecting in your journal. When the 30 days are up, go back and review what you've learned and the progress you've made. Then you can decide if you want to continue journaling.

Aim for 5 to 10 minutes of uninterrupted time to do your journaling, ideally the same time every day.

What you write, draw or sketch is completely up to you.

Just sit and write.

Mind-map, list goals, outline your vision, doodle, draw, sketch, make a gratitude list, list your short-term and long-term, write down everything you are curious about, list your passion projects, make a daily entry of needs to be done, reflect on your accomplishments, etc.

Just get all the ideas out on paper, and push yourself to see if more are hanging around in the background of your mind.

Come back to them later to see if anything jumps out at you.

As part of your morning and post-work journaling sessions, be sure to write about everything you are grateful for. Gratitude journaling is a scientifically proven way to overcome several psychological challenges.

It will change your entire life orientation from scarcity to abundance.

"Writing in a journal each day, with a structured, strategic process allows you to direct your focus to what you did accomplish, what you're grateful for, and what you're committed to doing better tomorrow. Thus, you more deeply enjoy your journey each day, feel good about any forward progress you made, and use a heightened level of clarity to accelerate your results," says Hal Elrod, author of "The Miracle Morning".

According to Dr. James Pennebaker, an expert in the field of expressive writing, to get the best results from journaling, it was recommended that you:

Forget about grammar/spelling when you write.

Be honest and authentic (write like no one else is going to read it).

Write by hand for better memory recall.

Adopt cursive writing to get your thoughts out faster.

Journaling alone won't boost your productivity. But when you combine action with reflection you'll take better actions over time.

"Writing accesses you're the left hemisphere of the brain, which is analytical and rational," says Maud Purcell, a psychotherapist and journaling expert. "While your left brain is occupied, your right brain is free to do what it does best, i.e. create, intuit and feel. In this way, writing removes mental blocks and allows us to use more of our brainpower to better understand ourselves and the world around us."

Journaling is not a commonplace habit, it is a keystone habit. Keystone habits affect how you work, eat, play, live, spend, and communicate.

As Charles Duhigg, author of "The Power of Habit" says, "..they encourage change by creating structures that help other habits to flourish." A minor change in one aspect of your life can trigger so many other positive changes.

Journaling is a practical and accessible way to stay connected to your inner self, your body, your dreams and your purpose in life.

Before you go...

If you enjoyed this post, you will love Postanly Weekly (my free digest of the best productivity, career and self-improvement posts). Subscribe and get a free copy of my new eBook, " The Power of One Percent Better: Small Gains, Maximum Results". Join 21,000+ readers.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Life-Changing Habit of Journaling (Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, and Many More Great Minds...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Ever wondered why history's great minds including Isaac Newton, Abraham Lincoln, Andy Warhol, Leonardo Da Vinci, Marcus Aurelius, Charles Darwin, Winston Churchill, Benjamin Franklin, Ernest Hemingway, George Bernard Shaw and Maya Angelou would spend so much of their precious time writing things that will never be seen by another soul?

# data[].attributes.headline
Even though this blog refers to elementary, the points are applicable to secondary.

# data[].attributes.subject
Even though this blog refers to elementary, the points are applicable to secondary.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
I've been thinking a lot about Reader's Notebooks and how my students used them. I've wanted the Reader's Notebook to show students' thinking about and process while reading; ultimately showing their growth as readers over the year. Now I'm wondering, after reading and rereading Linda Rief's book Read, Write, Teach, if I have overlooked something important. In Rief's 8th grade classroom, students have a WRN, a Writer's-Reader's Notebook that co-mingles their reading responses and their writing entries. Would this work for 5th graders? Could my students' reading lives feed their writing lives? Could this mix create better readers?
I had to try this out. Honestly, authentically. But first a confession.
Reader's notebooks are a tough sell. Students either just want to read, or they just don't like doing it. I get their point. I take notes on reading (often informational or for a book club), but these notes usually end up in the books I'm reading. I annotate, use post its and leave loose leaf pages in books, but I haven't used a reader's notebook to keep track of my reading thoughts over time. "Teacher me" can see the potential, but "Reader me" hasn't owned this.

What I discovered. First off, it was difficult to develop the habit. I kept forgetting. And, it is a less natural thing (for me) to do with fiction. After three weeks, with the notebook near by, I'm writing responses to the text and pulling quotes. I write about what mattered to me. I write when things kept hitting me again and again, or when characters surprise me or irritate me. More importantly, I'm noticing a shift in my engagement in and attitude toward writing about reading.

The payoff. After a few reads, my writing about reading is becoming a collection. Those lines that come from multiple texts are there in one place and are easy to set beside one another and see connections. (Ooo, Teacher me is seeing Reading Standards 1 and 9 in flashing lights, and Reader me is just thinking that's so cool!)

And a writing bonus: Quotes and responses from reading have become jumping off points for writing entries. This line from Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy started an entry on naming my kids and one on the importance my mom placed on naming me.

Then I noticed another quote pulled from Snicker of Magic and I thought about the connection to names in that read as well.

Rief's Writer's-Reader's Notebooks include sections on response, classroom lessons, vocabulary, and spelling. Lots of valuable writing and reading connections all in one place. In the response section she asks students to do a multitude of things with text and life. It is all about noticing and responding to what you encounter be it text or the world.

*to collect/respond to/react to/reflect on reading (books, magazines, instructions, other classes, etc.), writing, observations, and discoveries about yourself, others, and the world with writing, collected pictures, charts, cartoons, lists, drawing

I love these thoughts Rief gives her students for inspiration:

Your notebook is a room of your own. It provides a safe place for you to ask: What do I notice? What do I care about? What really matters? What moves the deepest part of me? What haunts me? What do I want to remember-in my life, in this world-for the rest of my life? What do I want to write about?" -Ralph Fletcher, Breathing In, Breathing Out, p.3

The point of a notebook (journal) is to jumpstart your mind." -John Gregory Dunn from Shoptalk (1990, Don Murray)

My notebook is who I am/everything I want to remember as a writer, reader, thinker, listener, observer of the world around me." -Linda Rief

I'm keeping the last quote for the front of my notebook. One I will share with my students at the end of the summer.

While the idea of a combined Writer's-Reader's Notebook breaks away from my original construct of a separate Writer's Notebook, introduced at my school in 3rd grade and then developed in 4th, I think next year I'd like to venture into this hybrid idea. I've noticed my students' Writer's Notebooks are not used very heavily. This trend speaks to the earlier drafting and revising work they are doing outside of the notebook. Which is good, but their independent writing lives seem underdeveloped. Perhaps bringing the two notebooks together will motivate readers to write more about their reading and find more inspiration for their own narratives and opinions.

How have you and your students document your reading lives? Does the work support your writing life?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
I've been thinking a lot about Reader's Notebooks and how my students used them. I've wanted the Reader's Notebook to show students' thinking about and process while reading; ultimately showing their growth as readers over the year. Now I'm wondering, after reading and rereading Linda Rief's book Read, Write, Teach , if I have overlooked something important.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
We write next to poetry almost every day in my classroom. Poetry distills images and word choice and captures big ideas in small spaces, as I tell my students. It is an ideal text to study because we can reread it several times and see more as we do.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
Drive Brand Studio - Branding, Advertising, Marketing, Websites

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
We write next to poetry almost every day in my classroom. Poetry distills images and word choice and captures big ideas in small spaces, as I tell my students. It is an ideal text to study because we can reread it several times and see more as we do.

# data[].attributes.body
I wish my notebooks were as gorgeous as Linda's are.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Linda Rief: Keeping a Notebook Makes Me Pay Attention

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Notebook Shelf Don Murray used to carry around laminated cards about the size of a bookmark, that said, “Nulla Dies Sine Linea—Ne...

# data[].attributes.headline
The Role of Journals in Historical Thinking 

# data[].attributes.subject
The Role of Journals in Historical Thinking 

# data[].attributes.body
This isn't specifically about a writers notebook, but it gives a rationale for informal, exploratory writing in history.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
"I think of writing as a way of seeing. It's a way of bringing out the specialness of ordinary things."
-Laurence Yep
Nearly a decade ago, as a high-school history teacher, I was asked to participate in a "writing across the curriculum" grant. I entered the process quite confident in my ability to challenge my students through a variety of thinking and assessment activities that focused on the art of writing. Needless to say, I was very naïve. Once I came to this realization, I was ready to learn. Through my experience in this grant and my interaction with English and literature teachers, I adopted a number of new teaching strategies that focused on student writing.

The format with which I have had the most success is journal writing. For me, journal writing seems an ideal instructional tool for taking students to higher order cognitive learning levels and for achieving many of the affective learning goals I have identified as requisite to deeper understanding. I have also found journal writing to be a very effective means for integrating all of the elements of historical thinking into my curriculum. When I speak of historical thinking, I am referring to the definition outlined in the National Standards for History, which includes the following components:

Chronological Thinking

Historical Comprehension

Historical Analysis and Interpretation

Historical Research Capabilities

Historical Issues-Analysis and Decision-Making1

I never want to sacrifice content for process, and journal writing does not require that of those who choose to utilize it in the classroom. Another benefit of journal writing for me has been the tremendous flexibility inherent in its design. Journal writing activities can be assigned on a daily, weekly and/or semester basis and can be worked out in various formats: notebooks, index cards, typed documents, 3.5" computer disks, protected/secure web pages, and e-mail messages.

I am well aware that we are all instructional and curricular gatekeepers, and therefore not all teaching and learning activities will see the light of day in our classroom. I would have it no other way. As you examine the various forms of journal writing activities and implementation strategies, however, my hope is that all readers derive some benefit from this discussion, in accordance with the axiom, put forth by the Bradley Commission on History in Schools, that "variety is the spice of learning, just as it is of life."2

Integration Techniques

Journal writing may be integrated into the history curriculum in myriad ways, I will provide an overview framed by the National Standards definition.

1. Text Review Journal

The authors of the National Standards for History call chronological thinking the "heart of historical reasoning."3 One way for students to identify the role and importance of temporal order, historical causation, as well as change and continuity is for history instructors to build this mental scaffolding. The type of journal assignment that appears best suited for this task is a text review. Text review journal writing encourages students to use the chronological timeline in the textbook as a baseline for other primary and secondary source materials they encounter in their readings, research, and class lectures. Students should place the items they come across in these other sources on the timeline. This allows them to establish temporal order and to compare and
contrast the varying historical accounts and interpretations they encounter during the course of their research and classroom discussion. For example, students can respond to journal prompts or assignments that ask them to

identify the temporal order of the text's narrative;

identify the interpretation of historical causation, events, and individuals in the text;

compare historical interpretations in the text with those presented in class lectures/discussions;

compare historical interpretations in the text with those presented in other course readings;

compare historical interpretations in the text with those presented in research sources;

place historical individuals, events, and movements encountered in other sources on the chronological timeline presented in the text's narrative; and

discuss contradictions or inconsistencies between the text's chronological timeline and that of other sources.

2. Dialogue Journal

The Bradley Commission Report on History Teaching argues that one of history's "habits of the mind" is for students to develop an understanding of the "significance of the past to their own lives, both private and public, and to their society." ⁴ For this to occur, they must develop a degree of historical comprehension necessary to appreciate historical perspectives and avoid present-mindedness. To achieve this goal students must be provided with opportunities to discuss historical issues and general learning concerns. As we all know, some students utilize office hours, those moments before and after class, as well as voice, electronic, and snail mail to address these issues and concerns. Most, however, do not. Dialogue journal writing provides a medium for discussing these issues in a manner integrated into the curriculum. Students might be asked to

note general observations about course material;

make suggestions or recommendations that might enhance student understanding;

identify "lessons learned" thus far, including application to their own life and present society;

list those lessons or topics they would like to learn more about;

discuss individual learning progress, both positive and negative features;

identify learning obstacles, including areas of concern, confusion or misunderstanding; and

propose possible courses of action to overcome these barriers to learning and understanding.

3. Primary Document Analysis Journal

Analysis, the authors of the National Standards for History argue, "obliges the student to assess the evidence on which the historian has drawn and determine the soundness of interpretations created from that evidence." 5 Such analysis and interpretation is possible only when students are allowed the opportunity to analyze, evaluate, compare, and contrast numerous primary source materials. As noted by some of the authors of the National Standards for History, "innumerable, and memorable, insights are to be gained from longer, closer looks at selected episodes, and all the more so by the deft use of primary sources." 6 Journal writing provides students with a means for recording their observations and conclusions in a comprehensive and systematic manner, thereby bringing a greater degree of consistency and authenticity to the learning process. For example, in their primary document analysis journals, students may be asked to:

identify the historical context in which the document was written;

discuss the attitudes, beliefs, and values which are held by the author(s) of the document;

determine the ideas, principles, beliefs, and values that are reflected in the document;

identify the impact and legacy of the document, in particular causal relationship with other events or documents;

compare and contrast historians' interpretations, similar documents, and other historical perspectives; and

evaluate the role of the document in our nation's history.

4. Research Journal

The authors of the National Standards for History best summarize the sentiments of most history educators by noting that, "perhaps no aspect of historical thinking is as exciting to students or as productive of their growth in historical thinking as 'doing history'." 7 As with the other historical thinking skills, historical inquiry can also benefit from student journal writing, though in a much different manner. Students can benefit at every step of the inquiry process by maintaining a companion research journal, to record their thought and decision making processes. A research journal provides students with a designated space to

formulate historical questions and a thesis statement;

list primary and secondary historical data sources;

evaluate historical source materials; and

record researcher's reflective thoughts and observations throughout the research process.

5. Classroom Discussion Journal

One of the most engaging forms of journal writing is that which literally takes place in the classroom. When integrated into the history curriculum, classroom discussion journals have the potential to develop what certain architects of the National Standards for History have referred to as "perhaps the surest path to engagement and thereby to acquiring other habits of critical thought and perspective," historical empathy. ⁸ Well-structured
journal writing prompts can spark the type of thought and reflection that allows students to develop both a deeper understanding and historical empathy. Journal writing activities may be introduced at various strategic points in the classroom discussion, including prior to instruction, as a transition technique, to check for student understanding, or as a summary activity. These journal prompts may also be designed to teach a number of historical facts, concepts, themes, or issues, as well as to facilitate the development of a variety of historical thinking skills. For example, classroom journal writing can encourage students to

identify salient issues relevant to understanding of historical events and movements;

relate these historical issues to current societal concerns;

discuss the problems and dilemmas which confronted individuals in history;

discuss the role of historical context and antecedent circumstances;

determine the alternative courses of action available to individuals during specific events in history;

identify the beliefs, attitudes, and values that played a role in the decision making process of individuals in history; and

evaluate decisions made by individuals in history.

I am well aware there are no panaceas in education. I also recognize, though, that the educational pendulum has a propensity to swing with more ease, velocity, and stride than any other profession, in search of one. What I can attest to, with certainty, is that journal writing has helped my students gain deeper historical understanding and provided them an opportunity to demonstrate their proficiency in the essential skills that comprise historical thinking. While journal writing represents but one pedagogical tool or means to assist in achieving this goal, it is one I recommend.

-D. Antonio Cantu is assistant professor of history at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, where he also serves as editor of the International Journal of Social Education.

Notes

1. National Center for History in the Schools, National Standards for History: Basic Edition (Los Angeles: National Center for History in the Schools, 1996).

2. Bradley Commission on History in Schools, Building a History Curriculum: Guidelines for Teaching History in Schools (Westlake, Ohio: National Council for History Education, 1995), 24.

3. National Standards for History, 62.

4. Paul Gagnon and the Bradley Commission on History in Schools, eds., Historical Literacy: The Case for History in
American Education (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1991), 25.

5. National Standards for History, 65.

6. Charlotte Crabtree et al., eds., Lessons From History: Essential Understandings and Historical Perspectives Students Should Acquire (Los Angeles: National Center for History in the Schools, 1992), 18.

7. National Standards for History, 67.

8. Charlotte Crabtree et al., 153.

9. Bradley Commission on History in Schools, 24.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Role of Journal Writing in Historical Thinking | AHA

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
"I think of writing as a way of seeing. It's a way of bringing out the specialness of ordinary things." -Laurence Yep Nearly a decade ago, as a high-school history teacher, I was asked to participate in a "writing across the curriculum" grant.

# data[].attributes.body
Favorite prompts

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Some strategies for motivating writers to engage in meaningful revision.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Using Digital Notebooks for Modern Writing Students

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Literacy Daily-the blog of the International Literacy Association (ILA)-features education stories, teaching tips, book reviews, and more.

# data[].attributes.body
From Psychology Today

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
When I was 11, I was given a little five-year diary with a lock and key. I wrote the usual pre-pubescent stuff in it, a few lines a day, most days. At 14, I began using steno notebooks, and over the next couple of decades I filled dozens with my tormented longings and occasional excited high points. Since I became a professional-and computerized-writer, I've been keeping a writer's notebook. Even as irregular as I am about the process, it's proven priceless for my creative output.

To free your creative self, suggests Janet Burroway in her popular textbook Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft, you must give yourself permission to fail. "The best place for permission is a private place," she adds, "and for that reason a writer's journal is an essential, likely to be the source of originality, ideas, experimentation, and growth."

Such a notebook may include observations, ideas, notes about projects, emotions, overheard dialogue, dreams, "what-I-did-today" accounts, notes kept during a trip or to record a particular harrowing experience such as a home renovation. Whereas in our pre-teens we might have written, "Today I went to the doctor," a writer's notebook may contain a description of the attendant at the parking lot, the medical assistant's odd questions, the doctor's attitude, physical details about the office itself, and/or an account of the discomfort of the procedure performed.

In my notebook, I have lists by category for use as idea-joggers, including times I felt shame and experiences of painful loss. Such intense emotional moments are potential springboards for powerful writing.

Then there are the meta-notebook entries. "If you are engaged in writing anything-a story, poem, essay, play, or paper for school or for work-make some entries about your writing process," suggests Sheila Bender (in "Keeping a Writer's Journal: 21 Ideas to Keep You Writing"). "Be sure to say what your feelings are as you begin, revise, and finish what you are working on. What questions do you ask yourself? What are you learning that helps you write? What do you think you are working against?"
MAUGHAM EXPLAINS
W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965), author of Of Human Bondage and The Moon and Sixpence, began keeping notebooks when he was 18. He filled 15 volumes, and in 1949 he published the bits that hadn't been used in his other works in A Writer's Notebook (1949, now out of print). From his Preface:

"By making a note of something that strikes you, you separate it from the incessant stream of impressions that crowd across the mental eye, and perhaps fix it in your memory. All of us have had good ideas or vivid sensations that we thought would one day come in useful, but which, because we were too lazy to write them down, have entirely escaped us. When you know you are going to make a note of something, you look at it more attentively than you otherwise would, and in the process of doing so the words are borne in upon you that will give it its private place in reality. ...

"As I grew older and more aware of my intentions, I used my note¬books less to record my private opinions, and more to put down while still fresh my impressions of such persons and places as seemed likely to be of service to me for the particular purpose I had in view at the moment.... I have never claimed to create anything out of nothing; I have always needed an incident or a character as a starting point, but I have exercised imagination, invention and a sense of the dramatic to make it something of my own."
THE THING ITSELF
Stationery stores offer dozens of notebook possibilities, and there is a whole community of Moleskin fanatics. This last tempted me, and I did buy one to carry to coffee shops. But I don't like the performance pressure I feel when I'm writing in something lovely enough to be preserved for posterity.

Burroway wrote that she prefers a loose-leaf notebook into which she can place printed pages from the computer, though, she adds, one can just as well paste in scribbled napkins. She also suggested writing regularly in your notebook to get in the habit of observation, which I'm sure is useful advice.

My own notebook habit is more catch-as-catch-can. I make entries directly into the computer, or I make notes on scraps when I'm away from home and then type them up. I used to print out the pages every few days as I made changes-it's not a static document-but that used a lot of paper. Soon I got more used to adding, revising, and shifting around entries right in the Word file. (I usually remember to back up daily.)
SAMPLES
Not all entries will feel momentous. If they are epiphanies, they might well be trivial ones, such as this one from Maugham's notebook from 1941: "I often think how much easier life would have been for me and how much time I should have saved if I had known the alphabet. I can never tell where I and J stand without saying G, H to myself first. I don't know whether P comes before R or after, and where T comes in has to this day remained something that I have never been able to get into my head."

Here are two examples from my own notebook. I used a piece of the first, an exercise in visual observation (not my strong suit) in an early draft of my novel but later cut it.

Odd vehicle sighting: 1934 Louisiana prison bus, $4500, grey plastic crate for a seat, the gas pedal is missing, the windshield opens up and the clutch pedal is crooked. Got a kind of bed in back. Made of blue and white, wood roof. Has a UC Santa Cruz parking permit, expiration date 6/30/74 on back. No license, no headlights, the valve to fill the tires is in the wrong way. Information 213 etc or 213 etc. Featured at Auto Expo 818 etc.

Overheard from Seat 27, Flight 33: "Leaving was the right thing to do. You could see him sharpening the ax." AIt's like coming around the corner and seeing someone standing there with a baseball bat-you don't walk toward him, you walk away."

Finally, I like to start a new novel (so far, one finished and one fractionally so) right in my notebook. That way it feels, at first, more casual, as though it's just another unimportant entry, not a Novel! Very freeing.

Copyright (c) by Susan K. Perry

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Never Be Blocked: Keep a Writer's Notebook

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
When I was 11, I was given a little five-year diary with a lock and key. I wrote the usual pre-pubescent stuff in it, a few lines a day, most days. Much later, I began keeping a writer's notebook. Even kept irregularly, it's proven priceless for my creative output. .

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
As the British Library puts huge swathes of writers' and poets' personal archives online on their Discovering Literature site, including papers from Jane Austen, Thomas Hardy and Charles Dickens, novelist Lawrence Norfolk looks at the significance of the notebook to a writer.

The first page of my notebook holds a column of place names, some cuneiform letters taken from a tomb in the British Library and a collection of oddly-named English meadow flowers (wet-the-bed, yellow rattle, adder's tongue fern).

Turning the page, I find a list of books with library numbers from the British or London libraries, then caravan names (Sprite, Lunar, the Senator range) then some players of un-credited guitar solos: Eric Clapton on When my Guitar Gently Weeps, Brian May on a Black Sabbath track, a few others. Turning to the back, I write the word Letter.

I am travelling on a German train between Hannover and Osnabruck. Letter is the name of the station through which I have just passed.

The next is Haste. I write that too. What, I wonder, if the name of every station on the line turns out to be cognate with English words? What if the stations form a sentence? A paragraph?

Unfortunately, the next station is Gummer.

Mind junkyard

A writer's notebook is a junkyard; a junkyard of the mind. In this repository of failed attempts, different inks speak of widely-spaced times and places, the diverse scrawls of varying levels of calligraphic awkwardness, lack of firm writing-surfaces, different modes of transportation.

All the places a good idea might blossom into something bigger and better.

No writer should believe in serendipity. All of us do.

Lawrence Norfolk is the author of four historical novels which have been translated into 24 languages.

He is the winner of the Somerset Maugham Award and the Budapest Festival Prize for Literature.

Thomas Hardy kept 'literary notebooks', a 'Poetical Matter' notebook and a 'Studies, Specimens, etc' notebook. But the richest to my mind is one with the bare title, 'Facts'.

Here Hardy and his first wife, Emma, noted down incidents culled from local newspapers. One entry (barely three lines long) is headed Sale of Wife. Out of that fragment came The Mayor of Casterbridge.

Of course, almost everything else in the Facts notebook resulted in nothing at all. A notebook is an act of triage on the world outside. A little 'fact' goes a long way in fiction.

My German train slides past the backs of factories, blocks of flats and houses. Heading out into the countryside, I see two imposing hills.

Halfway up the nearest slope, a large statue stands within a structure that resembles an ancient Greek bandstand.

The statue will be some comically-obscure German official. The Elector-Palatinate of Gummer perhaps.

I note down the nearest station and make a bad ink-sketch of the bandstand. Then I arrive at Osnabruck.

Franz Kafka wrote in quarto-sized notebooks before trading down to octavo near the end of his life. Jean-Jacques Rousseau made notes on playing cards during walks that were later written up as his Reveries of a Solitary Walker.

I make notes on library slips, envelopes, junk mail, whatever's lying about. All these scraps end up shoved into notebooks.

I'm not particular about brands (the moleskin is high-end for me), only size, specifically whether they require a pocket or a bag, and how much I can get on one page.

The research for my book Lempriere's Dictionary was written in spiral-bound shorthand notepads, filled with notes on classical mythology, late eighteenth century newspaper reports, clothes descriptions, weather reports, ship catalogues, details of the siege of La Rochelle and early automata.

Later I switched to larger format books. These were between A4 and A3 size and the obvious drawback was portability but I lugged these volumes back and forth to libraries nevertheless.

At first I simply jotted stuff down as before but gradually I noticed that my note-taking had changed. With this new expanse of space, certain pages would take on their own momentum.

Train of thought

A map of Himmelbett German radar stations began life as research for a scene in which a German World War II night-fighter pilot flies his newly-delivered Messerschmitt Bf-109 E-series (an Emil in the slang of the time) down the coast of Holland, accidentally setting off alerts among the different Himmelbett radar stations which monitored the coast against English bombers.

These stations divided the airspace into sectors of operation (or boxes) which were code-named for different animals and fish. I had in mind a German fighter pilot flying through an airborne zoo.

I collected these box code-names from the memoirs of German night-fighter pilots who would routinely refer to flying and making contact in Lobster or Oyster or Polar Bear.

Then I collated these references on a map to discover which box the particular creature referred to.

I never wrote the scene. But long after I'd abandoned the idea, I was still collecting Himmelbett box code-names and fitting them into my plan.

Similar projects (in the same book) include a table (eventually, several tables) of the sound shifts which mark stages in the development of Middle High German, plans for a radio transmitter using only technology available in the fourth century AD and a catalogue (still being compiled) of books which once existed but now have vanished.

No sensible writer intends projects like these. At the same time, no writer using a notebook can guard fully against them. They just happen.

A notebook accumulates its value slowly, line by line and page by page. Like Hardy's Wife for Sale, who knows what will prove a dead-end and what the inspiration or material for a book?

A detail jotted down in two minutes might occupy you for the next three years. The protagonist of your next book might turn out to be the Elector-Palatinate of Gummer.

A full notebook potentially contains the rest of your writing life. Or nothing of value at all. It is transitional. Work passes through it on the way to becoming something else.

I used the caravan list in a short story about two lovers not quite falling apart during an impromptu visit to Little Rollright (the easternmost stone circle in Britain, also from the notebook). The un-credited guitar soloists went into that story too.

Of the remainder, I don't know. Not the railway station names anyway. And I never found the identity of the statue, the Elector-Palatinate or whoever he was. I got off at Osnabruck. I left the notebook on the train.
Lawrence Norfolk will be talking to writers including AS Byatt, David Mitchell, and Wendy Cope on BBC Radio 3's Free Thinking on 21 May at 2200 BST.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Writers' notebooks: 'A junkyard of the mind' - BBC News

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
As the British Library puts huge swathes of writers' and poets' personal archives online on their Discovering Literature site, including papers from Jane Austen, Thomas Hardy and Charles Dickens, novelist Lawrence Norfolk looks at the significance of the notebook to a writer.

# data[].attributes.headline
Austin Kleon talks about his notebook and shares notebooks of others

# data[].attributes.subject
Austin Kleon talks about his notebook and shares notebooks of others

# data[].attributes.body
Be sure to watch this 30 minute video. His talk is filled with ideas that would hook kids.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
If you didn't get to see me on tour, here's video of the 30-minute talk I gave about the notebooks and journals that influenced The Steal Like An Artist Journal, filmed during the last stop of the tour at BookPeople in Austin, Texas.

A couple of links I mention in the talk:
Get a copy of the journal.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
If you didn't get to see me on tour, here's video of the 30-minute talk I gave about the notebooks and journals that influenced The Steal Like An Artist Journal , filmed during the last stop of the tour at BookPeople in Austin, Texas.

# data[].attributes.body
Want to make kids hate journals or WNBs?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Always Write: I Keep a Writer's Notebook alongside my Students. Do you?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
When you know you have ten minutes of required writing in my classroom and when you know you have a teacher who values all your attempts to be unique with your use of language skills and vocabulary words...well, when you know that is a regular routine in your academic life, you start to move through the world with not just an observer's eyes but a writer's eyes.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Ever wondered why history's great minds including Isaac Newton, Abraham Lincoln, Andy Warhol, Leonardo Da Vinci, Marcus Aurelius, Charles Darwin, Winston Churchill, Benjamin Franklin, Ernest Hemingway, George Bernard Shaw and Maya Angelou would spend so much of their precious time writing things that will never be seen by another soul?

Jim Rohn says, "If you're serious about becoming a wealthy, powerful, sophisticated, healthy, influential, cultured, and unique individual, keep a journal."

Many famous creatives, writers, innovators and original thinkers of our generation keep journals- for many, it is a creative necessity, for others, a place for exploration, and for some an art form in and of itself.

But you don't have to be creative, scientist or an innovator for this practice to be worthwhile.

Journaling helps you prioritize, clarify thinking, and accomplish your most important tasks, over urgent busy work.

Thinking in writing has this magical quality of clarifying your thoughts.

Tim Ferriss calls journaling the deloading phase in life. He explains, "I use it as a tool to clarify my thinking and goals, much as Kevin Kelly (one of my favorite humans) does. The paper is like a photography darkroom for my mind."

Get used to the pen again!

Reflective writing has also been shown to improve decision-making and critical thinking in a number of medical professions.

Michael Hyatt says "What happens to us is not as important as the meaning we assign to it. Journaling helps sort this out."

Journals give you a record of the progress you've made toward your goals to keep you motivated in the long slog of actually reaching them.

"As part of your morning creative burst, use your journal to review and hone your daily to-do list. Review and hone your life vision and big picture goals" says Benjamin Hardy.

Numerous studies (of the scientifically rigorous variety) have shown that personal writing can help people better cope with stressful events, relieve anxiety, boost immune cell activity

Judy Willis MD, a neurologist, and former classroom teacher explains, "The practice of writing can enhance the brain's intake, processing, retaining, and retrieving of information... it promotes the brain's attentive focus ... boosts long-term memory, illuminates patterns, gives the brain time for reflection, and when well-guided, is a source of conceptual development and stimulus of the brain's highest cognition."

What you write, you control. You don't have to spend your whole morning writing, but the only rule is to write continuously. Be consistent to make the most of it.

An optimal approach to start Journaling

Start each morning by identifying tasks, goals for the day.

Only write a few bullet points (2/3) to make it easier to start and make progress. You can mix personal and work stuff together.

By keeping each day's entry short and simple, you are making it so easy to journal without excuses.

At the end of each day, look back at what you accomplished, what you learned, what you want to follow-up on tomorrow, and what you want to pursue tomorrow.

Start small. Make micro-commitment each day to get started.

Don't make a huge commitment. Try it for 30 days. Spend just 5- 10 minutes a day reflecting in your journal. When the 30 days are up, go back and review what you've learned and the progress you've made. Then you can decide if you want to continue journaling.

Aim for 5 to 10 minutes of uninterrupted time to do your journaling, ideally the same time every day.

What you write, draw or sketch is completely up to you.

Just sit and write.

Mind-map, list goals, outline your vision, doodle, draw, sketch, make a gratitude list, list your short-term and long-term, write down everything you are curious about, list your passion projects, make a daily entry of needs to be done, reflect on your accomplishments, etc.

Just get all the ideas out on paper, and push yourself to see if more are hanging around in the background of your mind.

Come back to them later to see if anything jumps out at you.

As part of your morning and post-work journaling sessions, be sure to write about everything you are grateful for. Gratitude journaling is a scientifically proven way to overcome several psychological challenges.

It will change your entire life orientation from scarcity to abundance.

"Writing in a journal each day, with a structured, strategic process allows you to direct your focus to what you did accomplish, what you're grateful for, and what you're committed to doing better tomorrow. Thus, you more deeply enjoy your journey each day, feel good about any forward progress you made, and use a heightened level of clarity to accelerate your results," says Hal Elrod, author of "The Miracle Morning".

According to Dr. James Pennebaker, an expert in the field of expressive writing, to get the best results from journaling, it was recommended that you:

Forget about grammar/spelling when you write.

Be honest and authentic (write like no one else is going to read it).

Write by hand for better memory recall.

Adopt cursive writing to get your thoughts out faster.

Journaling alone won't boost your productivity. But when you combine action with reflection you'll take better actions over time.

"Writing accesses you're the left hemisphere of the brain, which is analytical and rational," says Maud Purcell, a psychotherapist and journaling expert. "While your left brain is occupied, your right brain is free to do what it does best, i.e. create, intuit and feel. In this way, writing removes mental blocks and allows us to use more of our brainpower to better understand ourselves and the world around us."

Journaling is not a commonplace habit, it is a keystone habit. Keystone habits affect how you work, eat, play, live, spend, and communicate.

As Charles Duhigg, author of "The Power of Habit" says, "..they encourage change by creating structures that help other habits to flourish." A minor change in one aspect of your life can trigger so many other positive changes.

Journaling is a practical and accessible way to stay connected to your inner self, your body, your dreams and your purpose in life.

Before you go...

If you enjoyed this post, you will love Postanly Weekly. It's my FREE weekly digest of the best posts around the web about life, productivity, becoming the best version of yourself, and my best post of the week. Subscribe here. Join 20,000+ readers.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Life-Changing Habit of Journaling (Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, and Many More Great Minds...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Ever wondered why history's great minds including Isaac Newton, Abraham Lincoln, Andy Warhol, Leonardo Da Vinci, Marcus Aurelius, Charles Darwin, Winston Churchill, Benjamin Franklin, Ernest Hemingway, George Bernard Shaw and Maya Angelou would spend so much of their precious time writing things that will never be seen by another soul?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
I shared this doodle from my notebook on Instagram the other day and everyone who commented seemed to assume that it was about Writing, as in, Writing Books, or getting Work done. (See a previous post of mine: " Shut up and write the book.")

What it was really about was the old idea of having a "loose tongue," or saying out loud the things that you should keep to yourself. In the home, in the workplace, or on the internet. (Perhaps the phrase needs an update for the smartphone age: It's our thumbs that get us the most in trouble these days...)

We focus so much on our notebooks as traps for capturing those rare, beautiful ideas that visit us, but notebooks are also amazing cages for detaining what is inside of us that wants so desperately to escape. To write down your rawest thoughts in a notebook is like putting a wild, unknown beast into a holding cell for further observation. Here, you can safely discover what the beast is and figure out what to do with it. Sometimes the beast needs indefinite incarceration, sometimes it needs rehabilitation, sometimes it's ready for release into the wild, and sometimes it just needs to be put down. But to let it escape at whim is rarely a good idea.

Or, as I've said before, a notebook is a good place to have bad ideas.

There's an old Quaker saying: "Don't speak unless you can improve the silence."

Sometimes we need to see the words before we know if they can improve the silence.

Hold thy tongue. Loosen thy pen.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
I shared this doodle from my notebook on Instagram the other day and everyone who commented seemed to assume that it was about Writing, as in, Writing Books, or getting Work done.