I’m one who “learns by doing,” so in order to experiment with designing an asynchronous professional development experience, I created this video series on how educators can enhance their professional practice through keeping a reading & writing notebook. This video series is free for you to use or share with the caveat that I’m a beginner at this! I do share my contact information in the introductory video below and invite you to reach out to me to share your feedback on this work. As well, it’s important to mention that this work was not created in a vacuum! Much of what I’ve done with notebooking is inspired by educational leaders and colleages. I worked to carefully cite my sources, and links to the various resources I mention in these videos are provided for you to explore.
Video 1: Introduction
This video series is designed to show educators how to turn an inexpensive composition notebook and package of color pencils or pens into a powerful learning tool. While some of the work within may be ideally suited for teachers of English, language arts, reading and literature, I argue that it’s not ONLY those teachers who should be readers, writers, thinkers and doers! (Length 2:51)
Video 2: What and Why?
What is the purpose of keeping a Notebook? Why should you do it? An overview of the work that brings us here today (Length 5:02)
Video 3: Setting Up Your Notebook
In this video I share my template for Notebook organization, which I find to be well suited for reading, writing, thinking and doing (Length: 7:01)
You can begin setting up your Notebook as you watch the video, but I would suggest downloading and printing my template pages first.
To learn more about the concept of Ugly First Drafts, check out this article.
Video 4: Quickwrites
In this video, I’ll walk you through an exercise I learned from Linda Rief, who I consider to be an authority on Notebook-keeping! By the time you’re finished you will have 3-4 peices in the Ugly First Drafts section of your notebook (Length: 25:08)
Here are a few additional resources on Quickwrites that you might want to explore in a little more depth:
Introducing a New Feature: Mentor Texts by Katherine Schulten for The New York Times. September 4, 2019
The Quickwrite Handbook: 100 Mentor Texts to Jumpstart Your Students’ Thinking and Writing (2018) by Linda Rief
Listen to a Podcast about Quickwrites. This podcast, hosted by Heinemann and recorded in 2018, features a conversation on Quickwrites with Linda Rief and Penny Kittle.
Video 5: Beautiful Words
This is another Notebook activity inspired by the work of Penny Kittle, author of the bestselling professional text, Book Love. For this activity you will need your color pencils and/or gel pens and a book you’re currently reading for pleasure (Length 3:56)
You can purchase your own copy of Book Love here, and I encourage you to check out Penny’s website or follow her on Twitter, where she shares many of her materials on this kind of Notebook work.
In case you’re interested, the sample of my own work comes from my reading of Robert Caro’s The Power Broker.
Video 6: Textual Lineage
This activity was inspired by my recent reading of Gholdy Muhammad’s professional text Cultivating Genius, which presents a four-layered Historically Responsive Literacy Framework that establishes learning goals that are inclusive of the needs of students of color, who she argues have been marginalized by traditional learning standards. This video is not a review of the book, but instead presents an activty that challenges educators to focus on how their personal identity is reflected in their instructional approaches. This could be a useful first step in identifying personal goals that lead to developing antiracist instructional practice (Length 8:51)
I reference this article from ASCD in the video: How to be an Antiracist Educator by Dena Simmons (2019).
Another great resource is to read Rudine Sims Bishop’s 1990 essay Mirrors, Windows and Sliding Glass Doors and watch the related video interview here.
Here’s the link to “The danger of a single story”, an excellent TED talk that relates to the work described in the video.
Video 7: What’s Next?
Now that you’re on your way to developing your Notebook, where will you go from here? This video will challenge you to think about how you can use your Notebook to stretch your creativity and professional growth.
Inside the Launch Window 