Writing Notebooks: Let's Get Digital

One of the best things about going digital with my notebooks was ditching that rolling cart that I would lug to the parking lot, hoist up into my car, and drive to my house, only to leave it in the car overnight and then drive it back to school the next day. Let's not even get started on the guilt I would feel the next morning when I would open my car door and see that sad stack of forgotten notebooks staring me in the face. While my wish to not lug that cart home every other day may have been my primary motivation for going digital, it turns out there were a lot of other benefits that led me to develop digital notebooks for all of my subject areas. 

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When I shifted to digital versions of my interactive notebooks for history class, my students loved them so much that they asked if I would create them for English too. I started with reading lessons but never really did anything with writing. Then came distance learning during the covid outbreak, and I had to make my writing lessons digital. What happened next surprised me. In a year when many students were struggling with online learning, I saw the most improvement in student writing than I had in any of my previous twenty years of teaching!

Why were these lessons so effective?

1. I uploaded my digital notebooks to Nearpod. Nearpod is an interactive slides presentation extension that allows you to see all of the students working on the lesson in real-time. Pear Deck, Jamboard, and Easel (on TpT) can also accomplish this. 
2. I used an animated short film as an anchor text. Using an animated short film as an anchor text for practice will accomplish a few things:
   
   1. You will know that everyone has “read the text.” Teaching a text-dependent lesson to a class in which several students have not read the text is a source of frustration that I am sure many teachers have experienced. You have plans for how long the lesson will take and then have to revise your pacing because you have to add in an extra day because so many students didn’t read the text.
      
   2. You will increase engagement. The short film is about 4 min long, so it takes up very little instructional time and works nicely as a “hook” to get students interested and increase engagement in the lesson.
      
   3. You will lower the cognitive load.  You are teaching students a new writing skill, and students who struggle with reading complex texts will be distracted from the focus of the lessons. 
3. I deconstructed the writing process, and we focused on a different writing element each day with lessons that included several writing samples for students to analyze and revise.
4. Because I wanted more discussion, interaction, collaboration, and participation during distance learning, I incorporated more peer review into writing lessons. Meaningful peer review can positively contribute to student learning and achievement. When students engage in the critical analysis and reflection associated with assessing the work of their peers, the result is:
   1. Timely/More Frequent Feedback: When peers review writing, students will receive more timely and frequent feedback than if the teacher is the only one providing it.
   2. Clarifying Ideas: Students clarify their ideas as they explain them to others and as they formulate questions about their classmates’ writing.
      
   3. Focus on Goals: By assessing whether or not other students writing examples meet the requirements of an assignment, students focus on goals instead of grammar and mechanics. 
5. I differentiated the learning tasks. This was the biggest takeaway from my journey of transitioning to digital learning formats. It is much easier to differentiate your instruction. I used Mote to add audio feedback and instructions. I added video tutorials to my lessons. Assigning different variations of a task is also easier with digital lessons.​

This is the first product that I have created for digital writing instruction, based on the lessons that I created during distance learning. It is a response to literature essay lesson that uses the Disney Pixar short film Boundin' as an anchor text. It's one of my favorite animated shorts because it has a great message about resilience.

Watch a Video Preview of What's Inside this New Product

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CLICK on the text below to
get this digital writing notebook from my TpT store.

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You may also like the reading notebook for Boundin'

If you like this film and want to use it for reading instruction I have a digital notebook for that too.
The reading lessons include:

• Theme Anticipation Guide
• A Talking Points page that will guide you through the film, giving you times where you should pause the film and point out things that students should notice
• Plot maps
• Multiple characterization and theme tasks of varying degrees of complexity-great for differentiating instruction
• Essential questions with writing and discussion prompts
• Exit tickets
• Extension projects (Poetry)
• Elements of Poetry: Sound devices can add a musical quality to the language of a poem
• Rhythm, Rhyme, Repetition, Alliteration
• Notice and Note Signpost: Words of the Wiser
• Detailed teaching instructions

Teach reading standards using Boundin'

Boundin' (for reading instruction) is also available in a bundle of short film lessons for teaching character.

What do teachers say who have used this lesson?

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Products that you can purchase from this blog post:
Digital Writing Notebook
Digital Reading Notebook
Back to School Bundle