Writing Notebooks
I have started almost every year of my teaching career by providing each student a notebook for use in my class. The original logic was purely selfish. Since I provided the notebook, it was MINE, and I could reasonably expect that it would stay in MY classroom and not be used for other classes, left in lockers, dropped in hallways, carted back and forth from home. Requiring an in-class notebook eliminated the all-too-common confusions and frustrations of having six (or more) classes full of students carrying notebooks of various sizes, shapes, and purposes, many of which were massive, pocketed binders that they carried to all their classes; others were odd-sized affairs made of recycled paper that were tattered or ruined by midyear. Despite my reputation as an educational renegade, I discovered that a certain conformity of notebook made my life a lot easier, and the one inviolable classroom routine was that students picked up those notebooks from the box at the beginning of each period and put them back at the end. Between those two points, they did a lot of writing.
The contents of the notebooks varied and evolved over the years, but the educational purpose did not. That purpose was summed up in a quotation I had all my classes copy inside the front cover of their notebooks: "You learn to write by writing...." Of course English classes spend a lot of time discussing and examining writing, and there are surely hundreds of methods and approaches that will help students become more competent writers, but at some point the rubber has to meet the road: They have to write! They have to get past that mental block by which they separate thinking from writing. All teachers know the student who, while most of the class has been frantically scribbling their essays for fifteen minutes, still stares in dumbstruck wonder at the blank page. "I'm THINKING!" s/he says, but somehow the page remains forever blank. The thoughts, whatever they may be, never make it to the paper. The notebooks that I gave to students were helpful in getting past this block. "Writing IS thinking!" I said often enough to establish the routine. "We write every day." And so we have done for twenty years in these notebooks, which were sometimes called journals or commonplace books and which recently evolved into a proper noun: Writing Notebooks.
What kind of writing? Mostly informal, first-draft, off-the-cuff, brainstorming kind of writing. Immediate impressions and responses to various questions, texts, current events, and themes. Sometimes there is a formal "topic" posted on the board. Sometimes not. It isn't the kind of revised and polished prose that you will see in finished term papers. To be honest, Writing Notebooks are usually more interesting. They are as likely to contain a poem or an exercise in handwriting as they are to contain a thoughtful, well-supported argument. Perfection is not the point. The point of the Writing Notebooks is practice. "We learn to write by writing....Writing is thinking!" And in their Writing Notebooks, my students write every day in a multitude of genres for a multitude of reasons. Sometimes a catchall for small daily assignments that I don't want to collect and score separately, sometimes a place to copy a short poem that applies to something else we are studying, the Writing Notebooks have few hard and fast rules other than that they get used every day, so you can't take 'em out of the classroom, and God help you if you tear out a page!
Having used Writing Notebooks in this way for as long as I have, I think I am qualified to say that they work. Students' writing improves as a consequence of this kind of practice, even though the practice is informal and often ungraded. (Notebook assignments are given a check for completion, never a score for perfection.) Of course, improvement is a relative term. For some students it is an improvement to simply get to the point that they can generate 100 words of their own about a topic. For others the notebook becomes a place to develop their writing "voice" and style. In this sense, the Writing Notebook is an "individualized" educational tool, and I find more ways to use it in class every year because I believe it is an Educational Good.
But you can't evaluate how the Writing Notebook affects a student's learning with a multiple-choice common assessment, which is what everything in The System seems to require these days, so I have always tried to provide the notebooks at my own expense to avoid being criticized for "wasting" educational dollars on my frivolous little project. Early on, I bought the 80-page, spiral-bound, college-rule cheapies. If I watched for back-to-school sales, I could get them for five cents each, so even if I had 200 students, it was no great strain on my personal budget. Some years the price would go up a penny or two, but I never paid more than a dime each. The spiral notebooks were a standard expectation of my class, and for many students, it was the most significant writing they had ever done. Those who filled all the pages by year's end had written more than many people do in their entire lives. Students would fill them with writing by the end of May, at which time I would let them keep the notebooks as a memento of that year in their lives, a reflection of who they were at that time. Some of the notebooks probably just went straight into the garbage as soon as summer began, but a surprising number of students actually kept them. I know this because the final assignment in the notebook was to write a letter to their future selves, and the P.S. on that letter was a reminder that they were to get in touch with me and let me know how things were going. For the past fifteen years or so, I have collected graduation announcements (from high school, college, law school, medical school), wedding invitations, baby announcements, post cards, letters, e-mails, and, more recently, Facebook messages from former students fulfilling that final "assignment." They kept their notebooks, and they are now glad that they did. Sometimes, sadly, it was not the students themselves who contacted me. More than once, I have had parents of former students who died tragically tell me that the notebooks from my class are treasured mementos: truthful reflections of that student's thoughts and feelings in his/her own handwriting, dear keepsakes of the child now lost. Clearly, the notebooks become for some students far more than just an assignment, and having all that writing in one place, makes it easy to reflect not only on the quality of the writing, but also on the writer's character and personal development.
Four or five years ago, the 100-page "composition books" became popular and widely available. While they were a little more expensive, they were far superior to the spiral notebooks. First, they are of smaller dimensions, therefore easier to store in the classroom. Second, they are sturdier: the pages don't tear out and the covers don't come off. Third, they do not have a metal spiral that gets hooked on other notebooks and, when yanked ferociously to separate them (as ninth graders will do), straightens out into a spearlike weapon that can potentially bloody and disfigure anyone reaching into the same box. The purpose remains the same (practice writing) but the convenience is much greater with a so-called composition book. The first year I used them, I found them for 20 cents each in mid-summer, and even though it was double the cost of the spiral notebooks, I thought it was worth the investment. Two summers ago, the best price I could find was 25 cents each, and I was teaching an extra class that year, so student numbers went up significantly and for the first time I really noticed the cost. My wife, who handles all our finances, looked up from balancing the checkbook and asked about the expense: "Shouldn't the school pay for those? Or the students?" And then, "Did the people at Wal-Mart look at you funny when you carted 300 notebooks to the checkout counter?" I offered an abbreviated explanation of my logic and, no, they did not! They don't care how many you buy as long as you pay for them...and that was getting harder to do.
Yeah, I know -- for all the doctors, lawyers, successful businesspeople, and spouses of same reading this -- even 300 notebooks at 25 cents each is only 75 bucks, and I won't detail here all the other things I spend my own money on to try and create a good learning environment for your kids, but suffice it to say that amount represents a significant hit to my budget. And last year, the price went up again: 35 cents each. What had started many years ago as a simple, inexpensive strategy that worked was becoming a burden that required not only more money, but more time searching and, now, pleading.
Fortunately, last summer I found a kind department manager who agreed to sell me the composition books for 25 cents each, and she even went so far as to have them boxed and ready for me to pick up. I realize that stores sometimes offer items like these notebooks as cost-loss leaders, which will get customers into the store where they will then spend more on other non-discounted items, and I realize that this particular manager, for whatever reason, was doing me a kindness. I don't know how she made it work, but she did. But I found out recently that she doesn't work there anymore, and that particular store no longer wishes to extend her kindness.
The Writing Notebooks are marked at 50 cents each, and that is the on-sale price. I have seen them priced for more than a dollar in other stores, and by the time schools starts I am sure that is about what they will cost everywhere. I asked a floor manager in charge of school supplies about the possibility of purchasing a bulk quantity at last year's bargain price, and I even showed him the receipt from the very same store to prove that price. He shot me down and wouldn't give me the name of anyone higher up in the organization to whom I might appeal. Undeterred, I went in early yesterday morning to try to talk to the store manager, the big dude, the one with the authority to make a difference. A helpful associate in school supplies listened to my appeal and actually took me to the back of the store and told me to have a seat while she went to find him. I sat there, foolishly optimistic, planning my pitch. But the same helpful associate returned ten minutes later, no manger in sight: "He said no." Just no. And he wouldn't even come out to talk to me.
I'd be lying if I didn't say that this experience rather soured me on that particular store, and as I left I was thinking about what a brilliant and inexpensive piece of local advertising it would be for such a manager to just GIVE me the notebooks. For that 200-dollar "loss" of donated merchandise, 300+ students this year would get a free notebook and get to hear the story of that generous businessman who works at that wonderful discount store. Word of mouth is, after all, a powerful advertisement. I'll bet it would net more than $200 in later revenues. Oh, well. Lest you think I am pouting, I realize that capitalism dictates that we can't give away our products, and someday, when the sour taste is no longer in my mouth, I might even shop at that store again. I also realize that a manager like the coward who wouldn't come out to talk to me face-to-face doesn't give a crap about my 300 students, and no one says he has to. He has broken no laws, and it is naive of me to expect the cooperation of someone whose only concern is "the bottom line." I am sure he makes far more money than I do, and I am sure he will get his raise this year because he has served his master well.
But my problem remains: I can't afford 150 dollars' worth of composition books to give to my students. And what will it cost next year? (Because of their apparent popularity, composition books are outpacing yearly inflation by a significant margin. Supply and demand, you know.) I'm not sure how I am going to address it, but there is a distinct possibility that my students will not be using Writing Notebooks this year. Maybe it is time to find another way.
I could request school funds, but students are expected to provide their own basic "school supplies," like notebooks. Also, every penny I spend on notebooks is one I can't spend on novels, textbooks, or workbooks for the classroom. And there are other teachers besides me who have supplies they will need to purchase. What if they ALL wanted the school to provide notebooks? That would cost more than the entire departmental budget for the year. It just seems selfish of me to use departmental money for non-reusable items that only my students get to use. I could require the students to buy their own composition books, but by the time school starts the price will be much higher and there won't be as many on the shelves. Some students won't be able to find or afford one. It just ain't right. I am a professional with a proven track record. I know what works. The money should be available to provide the supplies that I know are effective, and I shouldn't have to feel guilty about spending it to do what I know is right. Nor should I have to tap my personal budget to purchase them.
While this story illustrates many frustrations within the systems of business and education, the reason it exists and the reason many people would see it as nothing more than the whining of a teacher with too much time on his hands (after all, they get the whole summer off!) is because I CARE about these details enough to try and get them clear in my head, and I do that by writing about them: precisely the lesson Writing Notebooks teach. Writing is thinking! I spend a lot of time perseverating over these frustrations so that no one else has to. And the reason I do that is because I care about my students...even the ones I don't yet know.
I have one month to figure it out.
The contents of the notebooks varied and evolved over the years, but the educational purpose did not. That purpose was summed up in a quotation I had all my classes copy inside the front cover of their notebooks: "You learn to write by writing...." Of course English classes spend a lot of time discussing and examining writing, and there are surely hundreds of methods and approaches that will help students become more competent writers, but at some point the rubber has to meet the road: They have to write! They have to get past that mental block by which they separate thinking from writing. All teachers know the student who, while most of the class has been frantically scribbling their essays for fifteen minutes, still stares in dumbstruck wonder at the blank page. "I'm THINKING!" s/he says, but somehow the page remains forever blank. The thoughts, whatever they may be, never make it to the paper. The notebooks that I gave to students were helpful in getting past this block. "Writing IS thinking!" I said often enough to establish the routine. "We write every day." And so we have done for twenty years in these notebooks, which were sometimes called journals or commonplace books and which recently evolved into a proper noun: Writing Notebooks.
What kind of writing? Mostly informal, first-draft, off-the-cuff, brainstorming kind of writing. Immediate impressions and responses to various questions, texts, current events, and themes. Sometimes there is a formal "topic" posted on the board. Sometimes not. It isn't the kind of revised and polished prose that you will see in finished term papers. To be honest, Writing Notebooks are usually more interesting. They are as likely to contain a poem or an exercise in handwriting as they are to contain a thoughtful, well-supported argument. Perfection is not the point. The point of the Writing Notebooks is practice. "We learn to write by writing....Writing is thinking!" And in their Writing Notebooks, my students write every day in a multitude of genres for a multitude of reasons. Sometimes a catchall for small daily assignments that I don't want to collect and score separately, sometimes a place to copy a short poem that applies to something else we are studying, the Writing Notebooks have few hard and fast rules other than that they get used every day, so you can't take 'em out of the classroom, and God help you if you tear out a page!
Having used Writing Notebooks in this way for as long as I have, I think I am qualified to say that they work. Students' writing improves as a consequence of this kind of practice, even though the practice is informal and often ungraded. (Notebook assignments are given a check for completion, never a score for perfection.) Of course, improvement is a relative term. For some students it is an improvement to simply get to the point that they can generate 100 words of their own about a topic. For others the notebook becomes a place to develop their writing "voice" and style. In this sense, the Writing Notebook is an "individualized" educational tool, and I find more ways to use it in class every year because I believe it is an Educational Good.
But you can't evaluate how the Writing Notebook affects a student's learning with a multiple-choice common assessment, which is what everything in The System seems to require these days, so I have always tried to provide the notebooks at my own expense to avoid being criticized for "wasting" educational dollars on my frivolous little project. Early on, I bought the 80-page, spiral-bound, college-rule cheapies. If I watched for back-to-school sales, I could get them for five cents each, so even if I had 200 students, it was no great strain on my personal budget. Some years the price would go up a penny or two, but I never paid more than a dime each. The spiral notebooks were a standard expectation of my class, and for many students, it was the most significant writing they had ever done. Those who filled all the pages by year's end had written more than many people do in their entire lives. Students would fill them with writing by the end of May, at which time I would let them keep the notebooks as a memento of that year in their lives, a reflection of who they were at that time. Some of the notebooks probably just went straight into the garbage as soon as summer began, but a surprising number of students actually kept them. I know this because the final assignment in the notebook was to write a letter to their future selves, and the P.S. on that letter was a reminder that they were to get in touch with me and let me know how things were going. For the past fifteen years or so, I have collected graduation announcements (from high school, college, law school, medical school), wedding invitations, baby announcements, post cards, letters, e-mails, and, more recently, Facebook messages from former students fulfilling that final "assignment." They kept their notebooks, and they are now glad that they did. Sometimes, sadly, it was not the students themselves who contacted me. More than once, I have had parents of former students who died tragically tell me that the notebooks from my class are treasured mementos: truthful reflections of that student's thoughts and feelings in his/her own handwriting, dear keepsakes of the child now lost. Clearly, the notebooks become for some students far more than just an assignment, and having all that writing in one place, makes it easy to reflect not only on the quality of the writing, but also on the writer's character and personal development.
Four or five years ago, the 100-page "composition books" became popular and widely available. While they were a little more expensive, they were far superior to the spiral notebooks. First, they are of smaller dimensions, therefore easier to store in the classroom. Second, they are sturdier: the pages don't tear out and the covers don't come off. Third, they do not have a metal spiral that gets hooked on other notebooks and, when yanked ferociously to separate them (as ninth graders will do), straightens out into a spearlike weapon that can potentially bloody and disfigure anyone reaching into the same box. The purpose remains the same (practice writing) but the convenience is much greater with a so-called composition book. The first year I used them, I found them for 20 cents each in mid-summer, and even though it was double the cost of the spiral notebooks, I thought it was worth the investment. Two summers ago, the best price I could find was 25 cents each, and I was teaching an extra class that year, so student numbers went up significantly and for the first time I really noticed the cost. My wife, who handles all our finances, looked up from balancing the checkbook and asked about the expense: "Shouldn't the school pay for those? Or the students?" And then, "Did the people at Wal-Mart look at you funny when you carted 300 notebooks to the checkout counter?" I offered an abbreviated explanation of my logic and, no, they did not! They don't care how many you buy as long as you pay for them...and that was getting harder to do.
Yeah, I know -- for all the doctors, lawyers, successful businesspeople, and spouses of same reading this -- even 300 notebooks at 25 cents each is only 75 bucks, and I won't detail here all the other things I spend my own money on to try and create a good learning environment for your kids, but suffice it to say that amount represents a significant hit to my budget. And last year, the price went up again: 35 cents each. What had started many years ago as a simple, inexpensive strategy that worked was becoming a burden that required not only more money, but more time searching and, now, pleading.
Fortunately, last summer I found a kind department manager who agreed to sell me the composition books for 25 cents each, and she even went so far as to have them boxed and ready for me to pick up. I realize that stores sometimes offer items like these notebooks as cost-loss leaders, which will get customers into the store where they will then spend more on other non-discounted items, and I realize that this particular manager, for whatever reason, was doing me a kindness. I don't know how she made it work, but she did. But I found out recently that she doesn't work there anymore, and that particular store no longer wishes to extend her kindness.
The Writing Notebooks are marked at 50 cents each, and that is the on-sale price. I have seen them priced for more than a dollar in other stores, and by the time schools starts I am sure that is about what they will cost everywhere. I asked a floor manager in charge of school supplies about the possibility of purchasing a bulk quantity at last year's bargain price, and I even showed him the receipt from the very same store to prove that price. He shot me down and wouldn't give me the name of anyone higher up in the organization to whom I might appeal. Undeterred, I went in early yesterday morning to try to talk to the store manager, the big dude, the one with the authority to make a difference. A helpful associate in school supplies listened to my appeal and actually took me to the back of the store and told me to have a seat while she went to find him. I sat there, foolishly optimistic, planning my pitch. But the same helpful associate returned ten minutes later, no manger in sight: "He said no." Just no. And he wouldn't even come out to talk to me.
I'd be lying if I didn't say that this experience rather soured me on that particular store, and as I left I was thinking about what a brilliant and inexpensive piece of local advertising it would be for such a manager to just GIVE me the notebooks. For that 200-dollar "loss" of donated merchandise, 300+ students this year would get a free notebook and get to hear the story of that generous businessman who works at that wonderful discount store. Word of mouth is, after all, a powerful advertisement. I'll bet it would net more than $200 in later revenues. Oh, well. Lest you think I am pouting, I realize that capitalism dictates that we can't give away our products, and someday, when the sour taste is no longer in my mouth, I might even shop at that store again. I also realize that a manager like the coward who wouldn't come out to talk to me face-to-face doesn't give a crap about my 300 students, and no one says he has to. He has broken no laws, and it is naive of me to expect the cooperation of someone whose only concern is "the bottom line." I am sure he makes far more money than I do, and I am sure he will get his raise this year because he has served his master well.
But my problem remains: I can't afford 150 dollars' worth of composition books to give to my students. And what will it cost next year? (Because of their apparent popularity, composition books are outpacing yearly inflation by a significant margin. Supply and demand, you know.) I'm not sure how I am going to address it, but there is a distinct possibility that my students will not be using Writing Notebooks this year. Maybe it is time to find another way.
I could request school funds, but students are expected to provide their own basic "school supplies," like notebooks. Also, every penny I spend on notebooks is one I can't spend on novels, textbooks, or workbooks for the classroom. And there are other teachers besides me who have supplies they will need to purchase. What if they ALL wanted the school to provide notebooks? That would cost more than the entire departmental budget for the year. It just seems selfish of me to use departmental money for non-reusable items that only my students get to use. I could require the students to buy their own composition books, but by the time school starts the price will be much higher and there won't be as many on the shelves. Some students won't be able to find or afford one. It just ain't right. I am a professional with a proven track record. I know what works. The money should be available to provide the supplies that I know are effective, and I shouldn't have to feel guilty about spending it to do what I know is right. Nor should I have to tap my personal budget to purchase them.
While this story illustrates many frustrations within the systems of business and education, the reason it exists and the reason many people would see it as nothing more than the whining of a teacher with too much time on his hands (after all, they get the whole summer off!) is because I CARE about these details enough to try and get them clear in my head, and I do that by writing about them: precisely the lesson Writing Notebooks teach. Writing is thinking! I spend a lot of time perseverating over these frustrations so that no one else has to. And the reason I do that is because I care about my students...even the ones I don't yet know.
I have one month to figure it out.
posted by MRT at 10:10 AM
1 Comments:
Did you just say that a certain amount of confromity is necessary in your class? I am pretty sure I saw somewhere that confomity can make things easier for you without taking away your students' individuality... Yep, right there, near the top- "I discovered that a certain conformity of notebook made my life a lot easier." Looks like anarchy isn't always the complete right way to go... Sorry, not the point of the post, but it made me laugh. And to your current(ish) problem about the Writing Notebooks, it looks like you figured something out! hopefully it is a somewhat perminate solution so you won't be faced with the same problem. Oh, and side note: good job finally posting about something other than student of the month, you should do it more often, and make your honors students do it too. Yep, that's all.
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