Launching Writing Projects From The Notebook
One of the challenges facing writing teachers is how best to support student writers to move the writing focus beyond their writer’s notebook towards more intensive and sustained writing projects. We want the young writer to lift their gaze beyond the edges of the notebook and strike out in new areas with their writing. The writer’s notebook is a tool for writing. It is not intended for the entries to become ensnared; trapped in a word prison. The notebook contains many beginnings and not all of them are destined to be launched beyond the notebook pages, but their presence affords the writer options. The skill lies in identifying and lifting out that piece, or pieces, the writer feels have the most potential for developing into something beyond the notebook page. It will be a piece they can imagine themselves working on for a longer time. Engaging writers in conversations that encourages a desire to delve back into notebook entries, engage in some considered re-readin...