Reading/Writing Notebooks and a FREEBIE!!

Every year since I began teaching I have used a Reader's/Writer's notebook.

Every year I change it.

Some things work, some things don't, some things work only part of the time. It's frustrating. I desperately want to find something that work every year so that I can stop reinventing the wheel in THIS particular case, and begin reinventing the wheel in a different area !:p (Sidebar: when are they going to invent emojis for blogging??! #whoiswithme?)

The first couple of years I went with a five-tab model
1) My Stuff
2) Reading
3) Writing
4) Vocabulary
5) Response

My stuff was(/is) mostly like reading log, Daily 5 reminder posters, quick reference genre chart, and R/W Notebook rubric for when I grade it twice a quarter.

The Reading and Writing tabs were where we put all our mini-lesson work for those subjects. This, of course, was BEFORE I was introduced to Interactive Notebooks (INBs) and all their glory.

Vocabulary is self-explanatory.

Response was where I was having my students write their weekly letters to me. This year I have put them into journal format which you can read about and see more about HERE.
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The next couple of years I went with a three-tab model
1) My Stuff
2) Vocabulary
3) Writing

Everything was mostly the same, except since I had introduced INBs for Reading and Writing mini-lessons I eliminated them from the binder and left a writing tab only for drafts and other pieces student's were working on for a grade (for organization purposes). I also took out Response because I was having a hard time monitoring it and chose to do it in small group with "Think Marks" (More on this in a different post).
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This year I have settled on a four-tab model with the following format
1) My Stuff
2) Response
3) Vocabulary
4) Writing

All tabs from the three-tab model above have the same purpose, and I am still using INBs for Reading and Writing mini-lessons. Now, I have gone back to a Response tab, but since the creation of my letter journal mentioned above, I'll be using it a bit differently. My school wants students to be responding to their reading every day. Sometimes this can be difficult when you're only being given an hour to get all small group work done AND you favor a Daily 3 model which requires working through a variety of other components other than just independent reading. I have decided that this year, my students will respond with me IN small group twice a week (using their Think Mark) and respond in their notebooks on the opposite two days that they DON'T see me in the Response section of their notebook. I created a new Reading Response Record form for this purpose trying to combine all the elements of response logs that I've seen that I liked. Tell me what you think!

If you have read Word Nerds then you understand why I've got a Word Nerd Alert section. I am CRAZY PASSIONATE about kids being crazy passionate about words. I like for them to look for interesting/unknown/cool words every time they read. That section may be full or empty on a given day, but at least it's there for them to be reminded of their Word Nerd Mission!

If you're interested in it, click on the picture for a link to it.

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With all this reinventing of the wheel, I needed to update my rubric as well. It is featured as one of my freebies in my TPT shop right now so make sure you grab it! If you like the style and you want me to customize it for you, I'd be happy to do so! Email me and I'll see what I can do for you. Click the picture below to see it in my shop!

As with each year's changes, I get very excited that THIS IS THE ONE THAT WILL LAST FOREVER. Well, we'll see about that, won't we! How do you set yours up?

Happy Hump Day,

Brianna