I would love to hear more about how (if) people are using living books. I tried to use them this year and last year after reading Bruce's book, Writing Through the Tween Years. However, I tried to make a distinction between the living book and their writer's notebook. We split a composition notebook into two parts. The front was the living book and the back was the writer's notebook. The living book was to record things that happened throughout the year. I modeled extensively about how to write small and include many details. The writer's notebook was for story ideas and didn't necessarily have to be true things that happened in their lives. I loved doing this and I got better results than just a journal because of all the modeling. Sharing was an important part. As students shared their best word, phrase, sentence, paragraph, other students seemed inspired to write with better language and more details. The tricky part was to have time to keep up with the living book throughout the year when we were working on other longer projects. I definitely encouraged them to take the notebooks home.
Coralie Fifth grade Portland, OR _______________________________________________ The Literacy Workshop ListServ http://www.literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/lit_literacyworkshop.org. Search the LIT archives at http://snipurl.com/LITArchive
