Mentor Text Monday- Amelia's Notebook

Amelia's Notebook  by Marissa Moss
Amelia's Notebook is a a great springboard for using writer's journals.  I does a great job with incorporating writer's voice into the text.  

Amelia’s Notebook Story Summary:

The hand-lettered contents of a nine-year-old girl's notebook, in which she records her thoughts and feelings about moving, starting school, and dealing with her older sister, as well as keeping her old best friend and making a new one.- From  www.marissamoss.com

This is the link to Marissa Moss' website.  She has more notebook's and they develop with Amelia now that she is in Middle School. 

Amelia's Notebook by Marissa Moss, prominently displayed in your classroom chalk tray at all times, is a perfect tool for reminding students how creative and personal a writers notebook can and should be. Author Marissa Moss has created a wonderful book, story, and tool that will inspire your writers to collect their thoughts in a notebook. The book also shows how voice is very important in notebook writing. And it provides ideas for topics. The fact that it looks like a notebook written in a composition book is pure genius on the author's part.- www.writingfix.com

Amelia asks a lot of questions like: 
Why are hands so wrinkly?
Why d we have a thumb?
Why 5 fingers and not 4 or 6? 
Isn't it amazing how our fingers move and how many things they can do? (Page 21)

From Amelia's Journal- (Page 2-3)

Writing Fix also provides some great lessons for a "fierce wondering story".  Here is a sample lesson for a generating ideas in a writer's a:

Student Writer Instructions:

A "fierce wondering" is an interesting thought that makes you think hard about the world. "Fierce wonderings" happen inside the heads of writers all the time.

If you read any of the Amelia Notebooks by author Marissa Moss, you will find examples of Amelia's wonderings that she writes down in her writers notebook. Many of Amelia's wonderings could be developed into longer pieces of writing.

Ralph Fletcher writes about the importance of writing down your ""fierce wonderings" if you keep a notebook like Amelia does. He writes, "Writing about what you wonder about isn't always as easy as it sounds. It takes honesty and courage" (A Writer's Notebook: Unlocking the Writer within You, page 17).

For this assignment, we want you to devote (at least) one page in your writers notebook to interesting things that you wonder about. Throughout the year, when you end up with new wonderings, you'll have a place to record them.

Having the list is just your first step! When your teacher asks you to write and you're not sure what to write about, you'll always have the list to go back to for inspiration!

 Here are the links:

• Planning a Fierce Wondering Story
• Fierce Wondering Brainstorm Generator by Writing Fix- This link has a noun and verb generator that can help students that have writer's block.  Here are a few Fierce Wonderings that the tool generated:

• What if books posed for school pictures?
• What if thunder played sports?
• What if wild animals had a garage sale?

I am not sure if these would be topics to go back to, but the generator was fun to get random questions that can lead to more "fierce wondering".  


I have this book if anyone is interested in borrowing it.