Inside Notebooks (Video)

Writer's notebooks allow students of all ages to brainstorm ideas, test strategies for crafting writing, and develop tools for drafting and revision. In this two-part series, Aimee Buckner—a fourth-grade teacher and author of Notebook Know-How, Notebook Connections, and Nonfiction Notebooks—takes viewers into her classroom as students use their writer's notebooks across the curriculum to hone skills and play with language.

The series features numerous mini-lessons that help students develop strategies for using their notebooks, including:

• "Lifting a Line" to mine previous entries;
• "Highlighting and Word Hunting" to document thinking;
• "List and Star" to create writing topics;
• "Daily Pages" to promote fluency;
• "Questioning the World" to respond to reading;
• "Anchor Charts" to foster a sense of audience;
• "Point of View" to cultivate voice;
• "Reread and Reflect" to encourage self-assessment.

The program also features a comprehensive look at using the notebooks in persuasive writing genre study, demonstrating how notebooks can be at the center of reading, writing, thinking, and talking about multiple perspectives.