Reader's Notebooks

We have had the pleasure of sharing how we use reader's notebooks in our classrooms at two recent conferences - the Dublin (Ohio) Literacy Conference and the East Tennessee Literacy Conference in Morristown, Tennessee.

Over the years we noticed that our middle schoolers needed help organizing their learning as readers. Reader's notebooks are a place to, not only record their daily reading, but a place to respond to what they're reading.

The first thing students do is number their pages in a spiral notebook (hopefully this will discourage them from tearing out pages to use for something else). Then as a group we create a table of contents by using different color sticker dots to note the four sections: response, strategies/workshop, workstations, and wonder (informational).

The first few pages are dedicated to their "Books I've Read" & "Books I Want to Read" lists. The inside cover includes a genre checklist & a monthly calendar to record their daily reading.

We labeled the first section "response." In this section, students are able to respond to what they read by writing a letter, completing a four-square, or summary/response. The next section is titled "strategies" or "workshop." This section becomes a visual reminder of the reading strategies & skills that we practice throughout the year. It is an anchor chart at their fingertips. Items in this section might include: t-charts, Venn diagrams, foldables, sample passages of text, graphs, etc. The "workstation" section is next. This is the section that students can document what they work on is literacy workstations. It keeps them accountable for the work they do while the teacher is working in small group. The last section we included is labeled "wonder." This space is reserved for informational & non-fiction reading strategies. Items in this section might include: informational poems, t-charts, examples of text features, foldables, and sample passages.