Members of the MiddleWeb Discussion List and other interested
teachers are joining together to explore the Writing Workshop
and other ideas about supporting young adolescent writers and
readers. Juli Kendall, a reading-writing teacher/coach in Long
Beach, California, is helping moderate the discussion. Juli also
posts a weekly journal entry from her reading/writing classroom.
This year, Juli will focus on her efforts to integrate subject
matter into her reading and writing workshop approach. In her
first journal of the year, she explains
the rationale behind this move and some of her thinking about
how she hopes to accomplish this goal.
Find out more about our project at our Reading/Writing
Workshop homepage. You'll find Juli's background article here. Links to many of the tools created
by Juli and her colleagues are embedded in these journals. Most
often, when you click on them, a PDF file will begin to download.
You'll find a list of the downloads here.
If you'd like to join the daily discussion that parallels Juli's
Journals, find out how here.
This week I have jury duty. It's been an unanticipated opportunity
to discuss the workings of the Court system and to explain nightly
telephone check-ins. I'm convinced some of the kids still think
I'm the defendant, but so be it. As one of the kids said, "You're
not in trouble, you just need to decide."
At the same time, we've embarked on our five-week unit of study
about Investigations. It starts with using a Nonfiction Writer's
Notebook as a resource tool for inquiry. I'm taking cues for how
to use writer's notebooks from Nonfiction Matters by Stephanie
Harvey. She thinks they are really important.
The nonfiction writer's notebook is perhaps the most important tool for young researchers engaged in inquiry. My colleagues have found that first exploring passions and interests in the nonfiction notebook often leads to big research questions and compelling writing. (p. 16)
I have another great new resource for thinking about nonfiction
writer's notebooks. Cris Tovani's new book, Do
I Really Have to Teach Reading? Content Comprehension, Grades
6-12, has a chapter called, "Holding Thinking to Remember
and Reuse." She includes sections for Comprehension Constructors,
Double-strategy Double-entry Diaries, Quad-entry Diary, and even
one for Integrating Notes and Comprehension Constructors. All
of these ideas are perfect for using in Nonfiction Writer's Notebooks.
On page 68, she writes about questions.
The concept of holding and marking thinking is new to a lot of students, because they've been taught that it's the teacher's job to ask the questions and the student's job to answer them. But when I'm trying to learn something new in the real world, I'm the one asking the questions. That is what I try to replicate in the classroom, regardless of the content students are trying to master.
That's what we want to do with our Nonfiction Writer's Notebooks
-- create a place where students collect questions they have when
they are learning "something new in the real world."
To get started, I teach a series of mini lessons about how to
use Nonfiction Writer's Notebooks.
-- Share what authors think and say about writing informational
text.
To construct meaning and help kids see the connections between
reading and writing, I start by sharing what authors say about
writing informational text.
Joanna Cole had a science teacher who was not just like Mrs. Frizzle in The Magic School Bus, because she didn't do magic things. But she was really interested in science, did all kinds of experiments, and showed Joanna how interesting science could be. (Cole, 1996)
Thomas Locker lives beside the Hudson River. He says, "Living beside a great river is a wonder. Water is so powerful and crucial to life. It gave me the idea for a book about the water cycle." It took nearly two years to publish his book, Water Dance. (Locker, 1999)
When he writes about space, Seymour Simon gets the most up-to-date information from space scientists around the world. (Simon, 2000)
"People always ask, 'Where do you get your ideas?' The answer is-from everywhere." (Jane Yolen, 2000)
Lynn Cherry traveled to Brazil so that she could get the feel of the rainforest for her book, The Great Kapok Tree. She wrote this book because she remembered a woods she had loved as a child. The woods were bulldozed and all of the animals lost their home. (Cherry, 2000)
"I often make a quick sketch rather than take a photograph, because to draw something makes you look at it closely." (Paul Goble, 1994)
From Guiding Readers and Writers by Fontas and Pinnell, pages 425-426
-- Introduce nonfiction writer's notebooks. Give examples of
wondering by students.
Our Nonfiction Writer's Notebooks started out with "I
wonder why my sister is so crazy" and "I wonder why
my little brother is nuts" and it went from there
Yaritza --
I wonder why people have lots and lots and millions and zillions
of questions.
I wonder how many animals are in the whole world.
I wonder who invented the Internet.
I wonder why one planet has life.
Vanessa --
I wonder why does the Earth rotate?
I wonder why do we have nine planets?
I wonder why we have a Solar System.
I wonder why the Earth is round.
Jose B. --
I wonder how do they make video games?
I wonder how they make soda and put it in the can and close it
up.
Edgar --
I wonder how they make light bulbs.
I wonder how they make TVs.
-- Read aloud selections from books where the author uses a
journal, notebook, or diary to collect their thoughts.
Next, to give kids examples of Nonfiction Writer's Notebooks,
I read aloud selections from books written as notebooks, journals,
and diaries. I read a short selection from several titles. Because
I grew up in Tucson, I'm especially fond of A Desert Scrapbook
by Virginia Wright-Frierson because she writes about the
Sonoran Desert.
The desert sky grows dark as I return home. A great horned owl sweeps soundlessly above my head.
The air fills with sounds of life after night falls in the desert. Nocturnal creatures creep out of their tunnels and burrows. I hear an elf owl calling from its hole in a saguaro. The toads croak and sign. Coyotes yip and howl.
In the studio, I spread out my sketches of these Sonoran Desert plants and animals, and the feathers, spines, and seeds I have found. I think maybe I will collect today's work into a scrapbook that will give a feeling of this desert day from dawn to dusk.
-- Model your own writing in your nonfiction writer's notebook
for students.
Here's a little bit of what I'm writing in my writer's notebook:
I wonder what it's like on Mars. I watched on TV and saw the pictures that the Rovers took. It was so fascinating to see how the Martian environment looks different than ours on Earth. I wonder what they are looking for when they drill holes in the rocks on Mars.
I wonder how the computers that tell the Rovers what to do work. They are so far away. I wonder if there ever was water on Mars. When I watch CNN and see how the scientists at JPL in Pasadena are so excited when they talk about their projects on Mars, it makes me think about how long they have to wait for the Rovers to get from Earth to Mars.
-- Encourage students to "Give it a try!" in their nonfiction writer's notebooks and then have them share their writing with a partner.
Daniel T. --
I wonder how paper is made out of a tree? I got this idea from looking at a tree at school. My teacher said paper was made of trees but it does not look like it is really made of trees.
Jeannie --
I wonder how people breathe under water? When I was little, I thought only people can breathe underwater, but I was wrong. Um, I wonder, I wonder, are there mermaids? When I was six or seven, I thought they was real, that's why, I thought people can breathe underwater.
Helen -- (Our expert wonderer shows us how it's done!)
I wonder why the water is blue. Maybe it's because of what's above the water. It might be the reflection of the sky. Or it might be that when there are trees above the water it looks dirty and green because it reflects the trees. When the sky is cloudy, the water is grey. Maybe it has to do with the sun because at night the water is so dark. And then in the bathtub, the water is clear because the tub is white.
I wonder if you could ever fall if you were in outer space. Would you land somewhere?
I love books about science experiments. I don't want to hear how everything is formed I want to hear "How are things made?"
I wonder how many times a minute everyone's heart beats. I'm going to use the clock and check everyone's pulse - Sammoon's is 62 beats per minute, mine is 58. I'm going to do research and check everyone's heart beat and then they are going to run around the track and they are going to check their heart beat again and I am going to compare what they get.
Nonfiction Writer's Notebooks seem to be working. Everyone's writing
and sharing their "wonderings." We're underway.
I think this unit of study about Investigations is really going
to be fun!
SEE Juli's Curriculum Map
for Investigations - Unit Four
Read next week's journal
Read last week's journal
Read Juli's backgrounder about her work
Back to Juli's journal index
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