A Writer's Notebook: Unlocking the Writer within You

I found this book not very helpful. It was an easy read, but not very informative if you are just beginning the writer's notebook.

Ralph Fletcher does more than just tell you to write about something in your notebook, he inspires you through story and example to be the best writer that you can be. Excellent book to use in the classroom from about 3rd grade onto high school.

Ralph Fletcher demystifies how to make a writer's notebook work for anyone who is serious (or even not-so-serious) about bringing words to life on paper. He has a way of making the the abstract concrete and the complex simple. A WRITER'S NOTEBOOK: UNLOCKING THE WRITER WITHIN YOU delivers what the the title promises.

I am a newspaper columnist and substitute teacher. I was subbing in a fourth grade class and due to a sudden shift in schedules, I had about 20 minutes to fill. I saw Fletcher's book on the chalk ledge and thought I'd read a chapter and make my own professional commentary. When I read the part about collecting ideas in a "ditch," I pulled my writer's notebook out of my coat pocket and shared all my little bits and pieces with the kids. It just so happened I'd recorded incidents that had happened in that school. What great support for my "real life" lesson.

I was introduced to Ralph Fletcher's A Writer's Notebook this during the Coastal Area Writing Project, Coastal Carolina University, Janet Files. This "project" is an intensive, 4 week writing "submersion" for teachers. We learn how to teach our students how to write. Really write. Not how to write an essay for test, but to write descriptively and passionately.
I now use this great book, which is very reader friendly and written in complete layman's terms, for my yearlong, high school creative writing class. I love the book, and the kids do too.