Designing & Dedicating a Writer's Notebook
During my years in the classroom, one of my favorite days was the day we decorated and dedicated our writing notebooks. I always loved inviting students to bring in photos to personalize the front cover of their composition notebooks. My invitation was that the students select pictures, quotes, or stickers that would display the students' loves, interests, and personalities (with a small note about how the images must promote goodness and must be in keeping with the Catholic/Christian faith).
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This notebook is a place where students can collect gems of wisdom, sparks of inspiration, draw small sketches, draft ideas, and write poems, stories, reflections, and curious questions whenever inspiration strikes!
After designing and decorating the front cover, invite students to use the first page as a dedication page. Select a few books from your library and share the dedication pages aloud so the students can hear a variety of examples before writing their own.
From time to time, you may wish to invite your students to collect a specific idea, piece of artwork, lyric, Scripture verse, quote, etc. in their notebook. We believe the student should always be given a choice as to whether or not he or she wants to collect the shared item. The student should still be expected to participate in discussing or reflecting on the shared item, but the choice to add only the sparks of inspiration that speak to the student is what makes the notebook personal and special.
All of our creative workshops include what we like to call "collectables" that you can print, cut, color and paste into the pages of your notebook.
We encourage you to keep your own writer's notebook, adding to it regularly as inspiration strikes, so that you can occasionally share pages from your notebook. Invite your students to share their pages with each other to encourage and inspire new ideas!
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