Writer's Notebook, Place Where Students Can Play with Writing

Students need a safe place to write and play with new techniques of writing and that is where Jeff Anderson came up with the idea for the Writer's notebook. He has the students break the notebook into many sections that will be useful and also a reference for them for their writing

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One section that he talks about that I thought was something that was interesting was a the "Beginning with Writing" section where students are just expected to write without stopping for ten minutes. Its a good way to get students to blurt out whats going on and to react to something they are reading in class. Anderson has them write after he reads paragraphs from books out loud as well which I think is a great idea where he asks them to pick up phrases that stick out. I think that is a great way to get students to notice what they like and things that they might want to use in their writing

.I also really enjoyed Anderson's idea of the Author's word and phrase palette where as students are reading they can write down words and phrases that they really liked and what they might want to use in their writing.He wants them to look for things like action verbs, cool words, or phrases that they like. By writing this in their notebook they can go back to it later to add it into their own writing to enhance their writing.

Another great idea that Anderson talks about in his book is the idea of "the Writer's Eye" where students can write experiences they have had and things they have observed with their own eyes. I think this is a great way to give students ideas of what they can write about. It gives them a place to write down the places, things, people, etc. that they know really well. 

Ralph Fletcher also has a book about the writer's notebook which has ideas that are a little different than Anderson but they have some similar ideas as well. It could be another great source to add even more to the writer's notebook.

How to Teach Grammar Effectively According to Jeff Anderson

Mechanically Inclined the novel by Jeff Anderson brings up some good points about teaching grammar to students based on his experiences in the classroom. One thing that he talks about that I really liked was the idea of teaching with models from literature. He talked about using authors such as Gary Paulson and other texts that could relate to students and something that interests them. Research shows that relating grammar to students in this way is better than doing worksheets on grammar or doing grammar when its not related to anything. When teachers just give students a worksheet, students have a harder time transferring those ideas into their writing. 

Anderson says that using a mentor text is a great way to show students how commas or any grammar topic are working. Students can look at the mentor text and then try to replicate the way they are using the grammar concept in their papers and that is something that makes the idea transferable. Looking at many authors can give students ideas for their own writing and we want them to begin to read as a writer and see and appreciate what each author is doing with grammar. Anderson also talks about putting student examples up in the room because doing this will encourage other students to write like them or put in a good effort to get there work up there. 


Another idea that Anderson discusses in his book is the idea of reading aloud which I found very interesting. He said teachers should read aloud no matter the students age. Hearing the words out loud can help students see what they like about a text. He made the interesting point saying that what we hear and see will end up in our writing now or at some point later on. I agree with that because I know that sometimes I hear phrases from my parents or just from other people on the street and it just comes into my head when I am writing and then I use it in my writing. 

I found a great website to check out that includes tips and ways to teach grammar without using a worksheet or drill and kill kinds of exercises. It discusses ideas similar to Anderson.

Teaching Grammar During Writing

Many people in the world still think that doing the "drill and kill" methods of grammar is the way that students learn grammar best. I know from my own person experience that this is not the case. Growing up I had many teachers who implemented this method and I remember working in the work on the problems having to do with past participles, verbs, and nouns. I don't remember anything I learned in those types of classes. I still make mistakes with grammar in my papers and those "drill and kill" methods never helped me correct my writing. 

Reading "Teaching Grammar in the Context of Writing" by Constance Weaver showed that teaching grammar when it is relevant to writing serves a more practical use than then reading a text book and working on sentences in the book that need their grammar corrected. I want to implement this kind of teaching in my future classroom because it will be relevant to my students and it is the best way they will learn the most grammar the can. I do think that I may have to deal with a lot of parents who disagree with this methods, but I think we need to educate them to the reality of how well it really works. 

There is an article in The Atlantic that talks more about the idea that teaching students grammar in "drill and kill" methods can actually hinder their ability to learn grammar. So I think all teachers and district should move away from these methods but it is hard to determine if they really will. There are many books written to help teachers implement the new ways of teaching grammar that will help guide them through it. Hopefully educators will begin to see the benefits of teaching grammar through writing and it will take the place of these "drill and kill" methods.