Reading/Writing Workshop: Amelia’s 5th Grade Notebook
Reading/Writing Workshop
Amelia’s 5th Grade Notebook/ Or any of the Notebook/Diary books
You have read Amelia’s 5th Grade Notebook. You are invited to collaborate with members of your group and complete the following:
• Share the journal entry you wrote connected to the book.
• Discuss which kind of journal writing best describes your journal entry. How did it go? What did you learn?
• Discuss journal entries written from modern-day perspectives.
• What do you notice about these kinds of entries?
• How are they written?
• Discuss the impact of the visual material. How does the author use sketches, pictures, maps, photographs or any other visual aids in the text? How might these visual images inspire your students?
• What connections did you make with characters, events, places, etc. in this section of the book?
• What do these entries cause you to wonder about?
• Think about how you might use excerpts from the book to teach students strategies for building writing fluency:
o Daily pages (Teachers provide students with 10-15 minutes daily to write about whatever comes to mind; this writing is predictable and dependable so that it becomes part of their writing habit.)
o Lists (Students generate quick lists based on self-selected topics such as authority lists, best/worst lists, favorite words, scary stories, etc. Students then begin an entry based on an idea from their lists. Students should use these lists to jump-start new entries.)
o Observations (Students are taught to become aware of their surroundings; teachers model for students how to write using their senses; students may start by making a list they observe or by drawing a picture, labeling the picture, creating a caption, etc.)
OR
• Think about how you might design an invitation of idea prompts or a quick write to which students may choose to respond after reading a designated section of the book. Think about ideas, events, feelings, and characters that your section highlights. For example: school events, chores-jobs (babysitting), siblings, current events, food, seasons, holidays, favorite place, etc.
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