I've always been a writer- short stories, bad poetry, letters. As a youngster I kept journals. Often destroyed. Often hidden in shame. Things I poured my heart into, and often later regretted. Often seeming like mental hamster wheels, never going anywhere.
So the idea of a purposeful writer's notebook intrigued me.
Something that was part journal in that it was personal reflections and writings, but was less about complaining.
Something that was part scrapbook, with ticket stubs, clippings, images, and my written responses to these things.
Something that encouraged layers, going back, layering Post-Its, revisiting ideas, seeing things with new eyes.
Since then, I have religiously kept writer's notebooks.
Here is my pile.
Sixteen years of experiences.
I'm currently on book #27.
All kinds- spiral notebooks are great because they hold the bulge of scrapbookey things better. But I'm also a sucker for pretty journals. Lined. Unlined. Composition books. I decorate covers- stickers, comments, glitter pens.
Some books I fill every page. Some I discard three-fourths through.
Some pages are filled, then layered and layered in Post-Its and revisits.
Some pages have a single line, never to be revisited again.
At the end of last semester, I looked at my list of what wasn't working in my classes (English 11 American Literature, English 10 Global Literature, and AP Language and Composition), to see what changes I needed to make. My classes are yearlong, so I had to think about things to fix to benefit my kids this semester.
I think it was a decade ago when I first was introduced to the idea of interactive notebooks. I used them in part because they dovetailed with the AVID strategies I used- the students had everything in one spot, it taught and modeled how to take notes and be organized, and it encouraged out of the box responses, what my kids came to call arts and crafts.
I always kept the same notebook the kids did, so they had a model, and so, if they were absent they could come look at mine to see what they missed.
The last few years I migrated/duplicated my interactive notebooks to Google Slides. This made the material more accessible to students, both in class and when absent. It was also what I projected in my class. The students learned to check the board, it provided a routine, and a template.
All these are good things. But there were several issues. In my school, 50% of our students are below the poverty line. We are a mostly Chican@ and Native population. My students have smart phones, but have to ride the school wifi. They have stories to tell, but have often been passed along, with below grade level reading and writing skills. Many are bilingual. Their parents are dedicated, invested, but also often overworked, trying to juggle a lot of responsibilities. All of these things impact engagement, how well they can comprehend reading material, and what skills they have and don't.
I wanted to provide a model, but what I noticed was instead of using the model to do their own thing, think their own thoughts, write their own responses, they spent the whole time copying my model. Their notebooks were full of unannotated excerpts, copies of my questions, but no answers. No notes. In my AP classes, the fact that they weren't taking notes, prepping for reading discussions was obvious in their low essay grades, the lack of skill development, the lack of improvement. All issues I also saw in my regular English classes.
I wanted my students to learn to love reading, the exploration, the new worlds that I loved, but I couldn't get them to read on their own.
I wanted to introduce them to texts in class that they could make real world connections to, learn how to analyze, and they could relate to. But we ended up spending all our time trying to get through things, and I felt we were racing through and not getting to anything, not really covering anything.
My grades are evenly distributed- notebooks, projects, writing, tests, are all 25% with the idea that not everyone does everything well, and that shouldn't tank anyone. We also do almost all the work in class. We also have fewer assignments, because we spend more time on them. But this meant that if students didn't DO this work, it's disastrous.
I wanted to do better.
So I started to think of all these things, what I was seeing in my classroom, what I wanted to improve. And I started to research some different ideas.
The first day of class, 2 January, I handed the students letters that explained what we were doing and why (AP classes, English 11 and 10). I showed them a presentation that covered some of the same info as the letters but had example pictures too. We spent the rest of the day setting up our notebooks. We decorated them with stickers, washi tape, glitter.
I began with the idea of transforming my interactive notebooks to daybooks, or commonplace books. The students would still keep everything in one spot, but the limits, the rigidity went away.
I also moved from SWBAT (students will be able to) learning objectives to learning targets. And we go over these "I can..." statements in class, we've shifted the focus to what the students can do, and what they maybe can't do...yet. These provide easily accessible, attainable, goals for class. They know exactly what they need to do.
My Google Slides also have a lot less on them. We do more with less, which has become a watchword for me.
I've also given up the stress of covering whole works. Don't get me wrong, I want my students to read all of Heart of Darkness. But also think my students are getting more out of close reading, discussing, annotating, the first few pages of each part together, as a class, with Native students willingly sharing ideas of colonialism, and us discussing how this is still seen in world events. Now, in class we do this, using this time to see the opening of chapters and parts as mentor texts, and only AFTER I think they've gotten the skills do I set them loose to read the rest of the chapter and part (as far as they can get) looking for the skills/items we covered.
Here's what I've noticed in two weeks:
- 1st period is English 11. This class has always had an issue with tardies- our students are dependent on others to get to school, yet we penalize students who are late, assigning penalties that range from lunch detention to suspension. In addition to this, students miss instruction. Now we read the first 15 minutes of class. Some students are still late, and they're missing reading. But they're no longer missing instruction.
- All of my students are now laser locked on their reading. Totally engaged. They can read anything, I don't care- phones, comics, books from my room. They just have to read then write a response. No other aim, no essay, no project. And they love it.
- I am disappointed that I get really excited about that day's reading gif, and they apparently are unimpressed :-)
- K-12 schools have issues with this type of open space. The time doing "nothing." If it can't be explicitly tied to a Common Core State Standard (and hence state testing) it's not worth doing. I struggle with this the most as a high school teacher. There are lots of things that are valuable, worth doing, reading, experiencing, that you'll never find in standards. The problem is, we've evaluated not on our teaching, but how well we conform to an evaluation rubric. But I'll take the hit on this one.
- In their notebooks, students still made a title page, a table of contents. They still numbered their pages. But now, I give them less. We focus on answering questions, not copying them. They can put art class doodles, history notes, anything they want in them. I encourage them to make these connections. They have a section labelled independent reading, big ideas, and index. They read every class, it's now how we start class, and record pages read and some sort of response, any response, their choice. They keep ongoing notes in the index and big ideas section. Some kids take 3 pages of notes in one class, some barely one. They take what they need.
- I graded their notebooks for the first time this past week. I sat at their tables (another change- they've always sat in groups, but now they have to leave one chair empty for me so I can easily become part of the conversation) and asked them to do just one thing- show me the one page that they thought showed their best work in the last week. What the students chose to show me told me a lot, as much as the work. Now the notebooks are 20 points each week, times 5 weeks (we have 6 week marking periods).
- The notebooks used to be graded holistically at the end of the marking period, and the biggest issue was copying, not original work, and lots and lots of blank pages which always brought their grade down. It ended up being a meaningless grade in many instances that rewarded compliance, not the work or the thoughts or the process.
- In addition to grading, as they talked, shared the discussion of the day, I jotted down cool ideas, things they focused on in my notebook (I still keep a model).
- Students aren't copying my questions, they're answering them. They're writing more, taking more notes, pages and pages. Of their own volition.
- Students are more engaged. Participating in discussions, their notebooks, their reading. They're not zoned out, checking out, not paying attention. They are present.
My English 11 and 10 classes are still focusing on what stories don't get told, who the hidden figures are, and I like that as our overarching theme. American lit this marking period is focusing on the American Dream- how it is and isn't accessible to people, the differences through time. English 10 is focusing on war and trauma, specifically colonialism and the Holocaust, which most of my students say they've never studied. Sadly, current events have made these topics very relevant, and those are issues we're discussing in class, the importance of having these conversations, knowing these stories. My AP students are revisiting the synthesis essay through The Jungle read in conjunction with Fast Food Nation, and they're all really connecting with the idea of the immigrant experience, how little it has changed since then, for their experience, and how not much has changed for the most vulnerable.
My AP students were totally prepared for class this past Tuesday, despite the fact that they had to read 115 pages in a week, due, in large part because of the dialectical journal I modeled for them, that almost all of them completed.
So I'm super happy with the results so far.
It is a lot of work. It's a lot of monitoring, and while I'm keeping my notebook, I'll admit that in some cases, I'm printing the Google Slide, then adding notes, to save copying/busy work. I'm more tired after a 725a-225p day, because it's ON all day long. But I can't argue with the results I've seen.
I think this worked for a couple of reasons. The first I think is the letter. I was clear with students (and parents in my weekly email) about what I was doing and WHY. What I hoped to fix, make better. I also admitted the things I wanted to do, that I had failed on. The examples, both the images of all they could do, and my own notebook, helped them to think outside of the box on what a notebook could be.
I also think this worked BECAUSE of the open space. It's not all planned. It's rough sketched. I am able because of my content knowledge to suddenly make a connection, give them extra notes, put an organizer on the board. But these are ephemeral things. I don't plan them, and the board is erased after class. The kids don't mind- they're getting what they need. But again, K-12 teaching does not reward these types of flexibilities, in fact, they often punish them. But the thing is, I often don't know what my students need- a sample sentence, an extra model, an image, an organizer, until we're in class and I can SEE what they need. And I give it to them, but that's not a thing that gets rewarded, so I may get dinged on this on evaluations. But again, I'll take the hit, because it's these open spaces in class that I think are having the biggest impact. And frankly, as a doctor, it's my biggest strength that I can DO these things.
I'm not sure how the rest of the year will go. Sometimes enthusiasm for new things is not sustainable. But I'm excited. I think these are foundational changes, and so I think they'll stick.
I'll let you know.
In the meantime, I encourage you to reflect on what's working, what's not, what changes you can make, how you can better serve your students, how you can be transparent about those changes, and how opening your classes to and for your students can improve their learning experience.
Have a great story about daybooks, reflection, transparency, and open spaces to share?
