My Reading Notebooks

This year, I revised the materials in my reader's notebooks.  I'm using a combo of a binder and a notebook for reading workshop this year, and I'm not 100% happy with it.  I thought I would share some of what I've been doing.  Maybe you can help me tweak.

Let me first tell you how I've been working it.  In their binder, they have a section for anchor charts and handouts.  There's an index where they write the title of the paper so they can see at a glance what they have.  It' sort of like a mini version of my anchor chart binder, but they have only the few charts I give the entire class and the ones I give specifically to them as needed during conferencing.  There's also a section in their binder to keep track of books they have read, books they want to read, and a genre tracker.

Now, the notebook is more of our workhorse.  The notebook is where they take notes during mini-lessons, jot their thinking about their independent reading, and write their weekly letter to me for assessment.

These are the notebooks I use.  I got them at Staples during the ten cent sale.  My friends turn their notebooks in one day a week.  This way I only have to read 4 or 5 a day rather than all 24 at once.  As you can see, orange notebooks are due on Tuesdays.

When you open the notebook, you will first find this page:

I think the note is pretty clear.  Our focus this year is all about thinking deeper about our reading.  The next couple of pages give an example of friendly letter format and how to edit/proofread their letter.

We edited "idea chart" to read "thinking stems"

Next, there are facing pages that have the "thinking stems" we use.  A reader had asked me to post a link to these, but I just can't find it.  I pulled these pages from a file I've had for a few years.  I know I originally found them on the web, but when I tried to find them again this year I couldn't.  If you have ever run across these, please let me know where so I can credit the author.

This is glued on to the left page of the notebook.  The other pages is on the right side.  I like them facing each other so they can see it all at once.

For some reason, I took two half-page pictures of the other page,

Update! (7/22/12)   Special thanks to Marilyn who emailed me the link she found for these Thinking Stems.  This link should take you to a Word document you can print out.  I believe they are from the Calhoun School District, but again not sure.  CLICK HERE TO GO TO DOCUMENT.

These thinking stems are good for helping my friends who have difficulty coming up with something to write.  I used them as a springboard when I modeled writing a reading response letter not just once, but twice for my friends. I will do more modeling of this as time goes on and I expect more from their letters.

After these pages, I still have two blank pages.  One is for a rubric that I have yet to put in their notebook.  That's one of the things I've not yet figured out to my satisfaction.  While the kids know what I'm looking for,  I want a rubric in their notebook. The problem is I can't find one that fits exactly what I want and I've been too lazy busy to just sit down and make my own.  I guess I'm going to have to just do it this weekend.

The rest of their notebook is filled with notes from our mini-lessons, their independent writing about their reading, and their weekly reading response letter to me.  It's actually all working pretty well so far, but I just have this gnawing feeling that I'm missing something. So, I'm throwing it out there to you! 

What are you doing with your reading notebooks?

What do your friends do with their notebooks?

Do you use a rubric? 

What and how are you assessing them? 

What's worked for you?

By the way, don't forget to ENTER MY THANK YOU GIVE AWAY!  There are only about 22 or so entries thus far, so the odds are pretty good!  You have also been leaving some great ideas for picture books to use in mini-lessons.  Click over and check out the comments.  Even if you don't enter, you will get some great picture book suggestions.