Product Description

Writers are like other people, except for at least one important difference. Other people have daily thoughts and feelings, notice this sky or that smell, but they don't do much about it.

Not writers. Writers react. And writers need a place to record those reactions. That's what a writer's notebook is for. It gives you a place to write down what makes you angry or sad or amazed, to write down what you noticed and don't want to forget. . . .

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16091 in Books
• Published on: 1996-08-01
• Released on: 1996-08-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 138 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780380784301
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Amazon.com Review
Ages 8-12. Fans of Harriet the Spy who want to try keeping their own writer's notebook will appreciate this inspiring handbook. Written in a direct, non-condescending style, writer-to-writer, it offers realistic, experienced advice on how to keep notes and use them to create stories and poems. Fletcher, author of the ALA Notable children's book Fig Pudding, fleshes the book out with numerous examples from his own notebooks and from those of other writers, child and adult.

About the Author
Ralph Fletcher has always had a special passion for children's literature. Her is the author of picture books, nonfiction, and novels for young readers. Poetry Matters is the fourth book in Mr. Fletcher's series of instructional writing books, which includes A Writer's Notebook: Unlocking the Writer Within You, Live Writing: Breathing Life into Your Words and How Writers Work. Mr. Fletcher lives with his family in New Hampshire.

Customer Reviews

A Great Writing Tool for the Classroom
I began the school year by reading Ralph Fletcher's A Writer's Notebook aloud to my fourth grade class. This book details how writers get ideas through keeping a notebook-- a place to record and respond to events we observe in the world. We have set up our own writer's notebooks and add to them each day after reading a chapter of Fletcher's book. This is the first year my students are actually excited about writing! One of the biggest hang-ups for my young writers is thinking of ideas about which to write. Fletcher's book provides many "seed ideas" to get my students' brains churning. Now, even my less motivated students look forward to writing time each day. I even have students ASKING to take their writer's notebooks home to work on during their own time! Fletcher's book is a great motivator for young writers. Its ideas are practical and easily applicable to the classroom. I recommend it to any young writers, ages 8 and up!

Writing teachers - Excellent for classroom use!
I am studying how to better teach writing as part of my Rank 1 program (the highest level teachers in our state can achieve), and this is one of the books I highly recommend to other writing teachers. The best way to use it is to buy a classroom set (if possible), and read 4 chapters a week the first month of school. Each chapter Fletcher has something for the kids to try in their Writers Notebooks, so by all means, have them try whatever it is. Let kids decorate their Writers Notebooks too before you begin, so it's personalized and it feels more important to them. One of the chapter is about making lists...any kind of lists. He gives lots of examples from kids, which is one of the strong points about this book. It is aimed at kids, not adults. Another chapter is about snatches of talk that you overhear in a store or the mall. Write down these snatches and later they might form the basis of a story idea or poem. Again, he gives excellent examples that kids can relate to. After using the ideas in this book, all my kids want to do now is WRITE! What a great thing that is.

our "other writing teacher"
I teach second and third grade, and I use this and Ralph Fletcher's other books in this series, regularly in my classroom. I read parts of them out loud to my students, then we discuss how we can use Fletcher's ideas in our own writing. Fletcher writes to his young audience with a great deal of respect. He addresses them as authors in a way that both makes them believe that they really ARE authors, and also gives them the tools to really BE authors.

This book influenced how I helped my students set up their writing notebooks, and has also influenced how I have set up my own.

While these books are written for upper elementary-middle school students, I find that as read alouds they are accessible to younger kids; they are also helpful to anyone beyond middle school age who wants writing to become more a part of their own life.