Journal /Notebook Writing

Assignments

Marissa Moss’ Amelia's 5th-Grade Notebook chronicles Amelia's adventures as a 5th-grader. Amelia writes about "the good and the bad" of her days through her notebook entries. Each entry is documented through sketches, memorabilia, lists, musings and a collection of "sensational" descriptions.

In addition, Marissa Moss’ Rose’s Journal: The Story of a Girl in the Great Depression is the story of Rose Samuels and her family’s struggle to survive the Dust Bowl on their Kansas Farm. Written as a series of journal entries, Rose chronicles the events of the family farm as well as the events taking place across the country during the Great Depression.

Patricia MacLachlan’s Sarah, Plain and Tall tells the story of a family who finds a wife and mother, and a young woman who finds a family. The family consists of a Kansas farmer, Jacob Witting, his daughter, Anna, and his son, Caleb.  The young woman is the plain and tall Sarah of the title, who travels from Maine in response to Jacob’s ad.

MacLachlan wrote two sequels: Skylark and Caleb’s Story.  Skylark tells about the drought that comes to the prairie two years after Jacob and Sarah are married.  Sarah takes Anna and Caleb to Maine to stay with her family.  Eventually, Jacob joins them and tells them that the drought has ended.  The family is reunited and returns to the farm.  Sarah becomes pregnant.

Caleb’s Story tells about the return of Jacob’s father, who left his family when Jacob was just a child. The story deals with the relationship between father and son, and their eventual understanding and reconciliation.  Cassie, the child of Jacob and Sarah, is four years old.  Anna is finishing high school in town, while working as an assistant to a doctor. Caleb’s Story begins like this:

Anna has done something terrible.  She has given me a journal to fill.       

She wants me to write about the farm while she’s gone, finishing school, working in town.

In Anna’s journal the words walk across the page like bird prints in the mud.  But it is hard for me.  It is hard to find things to write about. Not much happens here, I told Anna.  Chores, schoolwork, and more chores.  Anna tells me I’ll find something to write.  Things to write about are all around you, she says.

I don’t think so.  There’s only the cold, the skies as gray as goose feathers.  And the wind.

Always the wind.

--Caleb Witting

Begin your journal or notebook by creating a title page.  This page should have your name on it and a visual representation which connects to your journal.  It should also include a statement about what you will use the journal for.  What will your journal include?  What do you hope that it will help you to do?

Next, generate a list of topics about which you may write. Please remember to include topics you care about and know about. Complete the following activity suggested by Georgia Heard in her book Awakening the Heart:

Mapping the Heart Activity (You may choose to complete a "Bone Map" instead-see blog post above.)

Part A

Create a heart map. A heart can look many different ways to different people. There is a
traditional valentine heart, broken hearts, scientific hearts, a symbol that represents
heart/life,etc..

The purpose of the heart is to map all things that are important in it, the things that really
matter:
*people
*places
*things you care about
*moments/memories
*things you love to do
*things that hurt you
*things that make you sad, happy, laugh, cry..

Part B
Use the following questions to help guide and develop your ideas for your heart map.
Don’t answer the questions but use them to help organize your thoughts.

1. What has really affected your heart?

2. What people have been important to you?

3. What are some experiences or central events that you will never forget?

4. What happy or sad memories do you have?

5. What secrets have you kept in your heart? – don’t share the secret, find a
metaphor

6. What small things or objects are important to you – a tree in the backyard, a
stuffed animal, a trophy….?


Part C
Use the following ideas to help you organize your heart:

1. Should some things be outside your heart and some inside?
2. Do you want to draw more than one heart?

a. Good and bad
b. Happy and sad
c. Secret and open

3. What is at the center of your heart?
4. What is on the outside, around the edges?
5. Do different colors represent different emotions, events, relationships, etc.?

Begin your first journal entry.  Write the date for your entry.  You may choose to write about anything your "heart" or "bones" desire! Please consult your "heart map" or "bone map" for possible topics.  Compose at least five sentences about your chosen topic.  Include any prewriting that you do as well as any revising.  Feel free to cross out and rewrite. 

• First, you might want to list some words and phrases that come to your mind as you begin thinking about your topic.

• Then, you might want to read the examples below.  What do you notice about the words and phrases that Patricia MacLachlan chooses to describe the coast of Maine and the seals?  What do you notice about the way Rose describes the family farm and how Amelia describes herself?

• Use what you notice about the examples to help you compose your sentences.

• Reread your sentences.  Revise them so the words allow your readers to see, hear, smell, taste, and feel what you are describing.

• Be ready to read your journal entry to the members of your Writing Circle next week. 

Place

“In Maine,” said Sarah, “there are rock cliffs that rise up at the edge of the sea.  And there are hills covered with pine and spruce trees, green with needles.”  p. 29

Animal

“I’ve touched seals.  Real seals.  They are cool and slippery and they slide through the water like fish.  They can cry and sing.  And sometimes they bark, a little like dogs.” 

p. 27

Place

“…I love our farm too much to want to leave it…I love how wide-open everything is, how nothing gets in the way of the land. It stretches as far as you can see. And the sky arches over it all so close you feel you could touch an angel if you just reach out your hand. When the sun sets, it’s like the whole world is filled with bright colors—the sky orange, yellow, and pink, and the ground deep purple shadows.”  

Rose’s Journal: The Story of a Girl in the Great Depression by Marissa Moss

Person

“My best friend Nadia-She has braces on her teeth so usually she smiles with her mouth closed. I’m drawing her with her mouth open, because I like her shiny braces. They look like tiny railroad tracks. Or a zipper.”                      

Amelia’s Notebook by Marissa Moss

Person

"Our school is having a Double Dutch jump-rope contest and Carly, Maya, and I are entering it...I have never been this NERVOUS in my whole life. My hands were so sweaty, I thought the jump rope would slip right out. When we started to chant, my voice was all squeaky and wobbly. But then I caught the rhythm of the rope from Maya, and I was O.K. Carly was perfect, like I knew she would be. Maya was great, too, with her extra-fast red hot peppers. Then it was my turn. My stomach was queasy. My legs were spaghetti, and my feet were lumpy meatballs. I listened to the smack of the rope, the beat of the rhyme, and suddenly my body knew what to do all by itself--even my cartwheel turned out O.K."

Amelia’s 5th-Grade Notebook by Marissa Moss

Part 3

Read Marissa Moss’ Amelia's 5th-Grade Notebook.

·        After completing your assigned readings, think about the many types of journal entries you may invite your students to compose. Choose one type of journal and complete one entry connected to Amelia's 5th-Grade Notebook.  Be prepared to share your journal entry with members of your Writing Circle. Please read the following information about Double-Entry Diaries and Learning Logs.

Part 4

Draft an invitation to your students.  Invite them to begin a journal, writer’s notebook, or blog and to develop their writing topics and/or to write their first entry. 

·        Design your invitation in an interesting and creative format.

·        Explain clearly and simply what a journal or writer’s notebook or blog is and why you want students to engage in this type of writing. 

·        Provide a literary model excerpt for students to use as they compose their first journal/notebook/blog entry. This excerpt should have at least one of the following criteria: connect to students' interests or topics, highlight book characters writing about what they care about, and/or provide a model of good descriptive writing.

·        Explain clearly and simply what the first entry should include.

·        Reread your invitation.

1.      Will students understand what they are expected to do?

2.      Eliminate any unnecessary words.  For example, there’s no need to write:  “I want you to begin keeping a journal.”  Instead, write: “Begin keeping a journal.”

·        Bring a draft of your journal/notebook writing invitation to the next class meeting, so you can share it with the members of your Writing Circle. If you invite students to blog, you will share your blog invitation with us.