Writers Notebooks as Tools for Social Critique
Noticing The World
2. Turned inward to the writer
December 1, 2019
Writer's Notebooks as Tools for Social Critique
- Two faces of writing
- directed outward toward
- The writing you do for the readers
- Thinking about the audience
- Connect what matters to the reader
2. Turned inward to the writer
- For thinking rather than communicating
- plan your life and thoughts
- helping tool
- resource for topics, research and planning
- They are unique to each writer
"In their notebook, writers look at the world through various social and political lenses, creating the seeds fro social and political action. Most important, they can rehearse and gradually internalize a habit for looking for trouble, of thinking critically about their social realities. The goal of Education is to enable students to do important thinking without teacher's assistance and sponsorship. Writers notebooks are one of the most useful tools for educating for social justice."
(Bomer & Bomer, 2011, pg 111-112).
Mini-lessons can help with the curiosity of students when they are writing in their notebooks. Some particular ways of thinking are: characterization, curiosity of people, dialogue, ear for spoken language, reconstruction, plumbing deep in memories, associative thinking reflection and so many more.
But are these topics for the students really helping them think critically on social issues?
To support more socially engaged critical thought in our students, teachers need to re-frame how we direct our students attention in their writing to be more to the outside world. Writers notebooks are a key tool for observing the world. By how we are teaching to our students can affect what the students pay attention to.
While we ask our students write what they see in the world, the teachers need to demonstrate the same. They need to write just like they are asking their students to. Teachers need to show their own thinking of the world and their struggles to help better the students critical thoughts and their writing for social actions.
- In the book, a teacher named Katherine started a socially conscious writing in her classroom. She then asked her students to look in their notebooks to look for entries that tackled a social question. She found this very interesting. One of her students realized she wrote many entries about a homeless person that she walked by many times. The student then talked about they saw them sleeping on the street and lucky she is to have have a house that they do not have. This shows her students that they are aware of social issues.
How to Apply to the Classroom
- Demonstration
- Assisted Activity
- Dialogic Assessment
- Demonstration helps your students because you are doing the same assignment as the students. Once you have written in your notebook, it is important to share to your students what you have written. This can be apart of a mini-lesson by having the students talk about what they learned from your experiences and their classmates.
- Assisted Activity gives structured assistance to the students so that they can further their writings on topics that they may need help to dig deeper in. A great way to do this is to go straight into their community. Take them on a walk so that the students can focus on their critical reflection.
- Dialogic Assessment is where students discuss on how they have been socially aware. This also gives the students accountability to their writings because they will be doing share outs with the class. These talks are also more than just share outs though. This helps teachers to see if students are staying on track with their thinking to also help students identify and assess their thinking.
Questions
- Why is it important for students to think critically in their writings on social issues?
- How could you incorporate a notebook in your future classroom?
- Did you have any classes that had you use a notebook? If so, explain why or why not you liked it. If you didn't how do you think having a notebook could have helped you in the classroom?
Sources:
Bomer, Randy, and Katherine Bomer. For a Better World: Reading and Writing for Social Action. Heinemann, 2001.
Great job on the blog, Amanda! To answer your second question, I think one way I might incorporate a notebook into my future classroom would be to spend a set amount of time, maybe 15-20 minutes, at the beginning of every day for students to write in their notebooks. As you said in your blog, students will often already aware of social issues. I would encourage students to write about social issues that pertain to or interest them, and allow them to use a variety of forms or styles that they feel is best. As described on page 112 of For a Better World, when teachers emphasize a particular kind of thinking over others, it might cause students to exclude a variety of other methods or topics (Bomer & Bomer, 2001). I think by leaving it more open ended, you will get a wider variety of more meaningful writings. Each day, students could then return to a previous days writing and continue, or begin a new one. I would also encourage students to read back through their notebooks often, so they can reflect and find strengths in their writings. I think doing this would benefit several things, including allowing students to practice writing, use writing as forms of activism, and also allow students a quiet time at the beginning of the school day to think and reflect.
ReplyDeleteCitations:
Bomer, R., & Bomer, K. (2001). For a Better World: Reading and Writing for Social Action.
Ilyssa, I think this is a great way to incorporate journals or notebooks into the classroom. I like how you had an extended amount of time for students. I know that often times teachers use journal time as a filler, but I think by having a set amount of time and having it in a routine is important to get the best results. With your idea, I also wonder if it would be beneficial for students to use the time to also research things that are going on around them. While students may be aware of many different social issues, maybe researching more issues would allow them to have more opinions and thoughts to write about. I also really love the idea of having students come back to previous entries to either continue to reflect, or to just see what they wrote about previously. It would be interesting to have kids see if they have changed their minds on things or if they still feel the same way. This could also be very engaging for students as they can see their growth over the year.
DeleteI would lie to address question number 2, how would you incorporate a notebook into your classroom? Growing up I always dreaded having to write in my writing journal, especially when it was about something we had to read in clas. I feel that had I been able to do more than just write for 5 minutes I would have enjoyed it more. In my future classroom I will allow students multiple options of how they "JOurnal" this options will include but will not be limited to, writing, drawing a picture, creating a poem, writing their own song, etc. These things will all be reflective on what they read along with how it made them feel while reading it. The structure of this writing assignment will not be too formal, I want my students to use their full voice in these writing's.
ReplyDeleteBrinkley, I like how you would want to allow students multiple options of how they choose to represent their thoughts. I also think you saying you want students to use their full voice is very important. I remember having a class in high school where we were required to write daily, but the teacher had always limited what we could write about, except for on Fridays. In Chapter 7 of For a Better World it had talked about the teachers providing a writing prompt, and how it could potentially restrict students from writing about topics that related to social issues (Bomer & Bomer, 2001). Looking back, I think that on Fridays, when we were allowed to choose what we wanted to write about, I was much more likely to write about something that related to a social issue, even though I wasn't prompted to do so. I think was probably the closest school experience before college I've had where I used my "full voice" as a writer.
DeleteCitations:
Bomer, R., & Bomer, K. (2001). For a Better World: Reading and Writing for Social Action.
Brinkley, I like how you addressed having multiple options for journaling. I think this is very important and helps with connecting to students lives. I never really dreaded journaling in class, however I know many students who did, and who would have benefited from different ways of journaling. You stated how you want your students to use their voice in their writings, and I think by having multiple ways to outlet their feelings and thoughts, you will have this outcome. In high school I took a journalism class and in that class, while I was applying journalism concepts, I was able to write about what I felt was important. One of my favorite pieces of writing that I did was about how school lunches should offer more vegan and vegetarian friendly options. To me, this class enacted a lot of what we discussed this semester as it led me to use critical class concepts to situations that I felt needed addressed or that were meaningful to me. It also gave me a voice and allowed me to use my voice in different ways.I think that it is important to use journals in the classroom, but it is definitely important to incorporate them in a way that is meaningful and beneficial to your students.
DeleteBrinkley, I really like your idea on giving students choices when they are asked to journal. I had to journal a lot in my high school English classes. Thinking back on that experience, mu favorite days were when we were asked to free write. I liked just being able to write whatever I wanted to without having to talk about what was on the board. I feel like your ideas for poems, drawings, and other things like that could give the students the freedom that they need to be motivated to start journaling.
DeleteAll these ideas are fantastic! I think additional ways to incorporate writing journals into the classroom is grading on how students write and not what they write about. Students can also decorate or flourish their journals in ways that reflect their personality. Writing journals can also be a way to ELL students to write in their home language if they choose.
DeleteTo answer your question "Why is it important for students to think critically in their writings on social issues?" I think that it is important for students to think critically in their writings because it sets them up to think critically about situations that they will experience in the real world. I never was asked to think critically on social issues until college level classes and I think that this has had negative repercussions for me. It has made me a little more nervous and shy when asked to voice my opinions about social issues because I am not confident enough to share what I am thinking. Not necessarily because I think I'm wrong, but because I had never been asked to do it before. I think that if students have experiences with this early on, then later when they are asked critical questions they will feel confident and practiced on answering them.
ReplyDeleteRylee, I totally agree with what you said here. I was never asked to think critically about social issues either and I think that it really would have benefitted me if I had that in previous schooling. I sometimes think that I will say the wrong thing because I've never really experienced it before.
DeleteI also agree with you and Abby. When I was in highschool, I was never asked to think critically about social issues or write about them. Although I thoroughly enjoyed my highschool experience, I feel like I wasn't set up to succeed in college where critical thinking on social injustice was focused on heavily throughout my sophomore and junior year. It is difficult for me sometimes to speak up because I am worried I will say the wrong things.
DeleteLoved the blog, Amanda! Great job. Responding to your third question, I remember several years in elementary school when we had notebooks for various subjects and I loved it. I felt like I could write things down that I didn't necessarily want to say out loud or share to the class, since I was pretty shy. I think that it allows students to think deeply and respond to things on a level that as teachers, we don't always get to.
ReplyDeleteAbby, yeah I agree with you. great way for shy students to share their opinion.
DeleteI was someone who didn't want to talk in class and I would've appreciated having a journal that we used in that way in class. My teachers never did anything like that, they just gave us prompts or articles or something to write about.
DeleteGreat post Amanda! How could you incorporate a notebook in your future classroom? To respond to this question, I think I would use the notebook to let writers to see the world in their lens let them write on what they believe in. I would use the notebook so students can freely express themselves and what they believe in. I will be the only one reading the notebooks, unless students would like to share them. I could also use the notebook, to keep track on their progress over the year. And the students can add in photos or anything they want.
ReplyDeleteI like that idea as I had a similar experience in high school. I liked the freedom to write freely and know that no one was going to read about it unless I wanted them to or the teacher would read them. I like the idea of adding photos. The students who don't care to write all the time could also draw what they would write about as well.
DeleteI had to keep a notebook in a couple of my English classes and I hated and liked it. I hated that I was being forced to write but I liked having prompts so I knew what to write about. I also took a cadet teaching class my senior year of high school and had to journal for that and actually enjoyed it because I just had to write what we did that day and what we observed happening. As far as in the future I hope I can incorporate journals into my class in a way that my students won't hate.
ReplyDeleteGreta blog post Amanda! I will answer question 3, I had a notebook/journal in one my English classes in high school. I liked this because it allowed for me to write and no one was reading it besides my teacher which I was comfortable. We would write stories, we would write about current events and other stuff. I don't remember writing about social issues but I can see why it would be good to write about social issues. I hope to incorporate notebooks/journals in my future classroom because it allows for the students who don't like to share or talk in class it gives them a chance to speak without feeling the anxiety of having to talk aloud.
ReplyDeleteAmanda, to answer question 1, I think it's important to think critically on social issues because of its influence on students' decisions and actions. Throughout the semester, we have spoken about activism and bringing social change into the world. If students write out answers for the sole purpose of receiving a grade, but lack the reflection and thought into what they have written, then did they really learn? If critical material is presented to them and they answer a question in an essay format, but lack quality of information that can contribute to change or to knowledge expansion and understanding, then what's the point? There's no power in a hollow theory, and there's no one listening to a silent speech.
ReplyDeleteDid you have any classes that had you use a notebook? If so, explain why or why not you liked it. If you didn't how do you think having a notebook could have helped you in the classroom?
ReplyDeleteYes I have had a couple of classes that used a notebook. I did not like it because it forced me to try to figure something to write about when I didn't have anything to really write about. Doing this is what made me lose my love for writing because I was forced to write, even when I didn't have anything to write about. I think that teachers could enforce a notebook,but instead of making students write about certain prompts, the assignment could be that there are a certain amount of journal entries each students needs to have before the end date. This allow students to be creative and write about whatever you want to.
To answer your third question, I used a notebook in almost every grade leading up to eighth grade. I did not enjoy the experience because every time we wrote in our notebooks, it was prompted and it always seemed to based off of what we read about in or outside of class. I did not like that because I was always behind with my reading comprehension. I do not believe that any of the writing we did focused on social issues. The only time I liked writing in my journal was when we got to have Free Write Fridays. The readings suggest using notebooks in your classroom to have students share political and social views of the world because many students see things differently. I would have enjoyed writing a lot more if I were given the chance to look into social issues and share my views or ideas on how to overcome them. This would also give students the chance to be activists.
ReplyDeleteSometimes students just write for fun and without a purpose which can be good for them but in terms of everyday society it is important to have your students look at social issues. It can open their minds up to the outside world and build the connection. One way to incorporate a notebook into your class for any grade is to have students write a certain amount each morning talking about one good and one bad thing that happened to them anytime. Also, having them connect it to school or the community would be good.
ReplyDeleteAmanda-in regards to your third question, I remember having several classes where I was required to have a notebook. Personally, I was never a huge fan of having a notebook for my classes because I felt like I only wrote in them because I had to for a grade. I felt like the idea of a notebook was good-but it restricted a lot of my creativity and I began to resent it. I feel like notebooks are very beneficial if they are introduced and used correctly.
ReplyDeleteI had classes in middle school and high school that used a writing notebook. Personally, I did not enjoy our notebooks because we were frequently prompted and timed with our writing. Because of this the writing felt very unauthentic to me. I think they are better effective when students are able to write about things that they needs to write about and share in a safe space.
ReplyDelete