Reader's Notebook, Giveaway, & linky party

I've been searching for the perfect reader's notebook to use with my kids.  Everything that I'm finding is way to customized.  I want my students to write about the strategies they are using when they read but I don't want to use post-it notes with my students because I don't get to send home supply lists and I can't supply enough sticky-notes for 35 kids to use all year.  I also want my kids to have a spot to respond to what they read but I don't want to limit their writing to letters.  Since I couldn't find anything I really liked, I made my own.  

A student's decorated notebook - they were all super excited to get their own notebook and even more excited to decorate it!

It is black-and-white so that the kids can decorate it and make it their own.  I've included 2 cover pages (one says Reader's Response Notebook and the other says Reader's Notebook), a reader's notebook guidelines page where you can create your own do's and don'ts for the notebook, the literacy cafe menu, a page to record reading goals, a reading interests page, a page to write down future books to read, 3 different think-mark pages (stop & jot, Think marks, and sticky-notes - choose the wording that works best for you), and lined paper for responding to literature.  Here is a sample of some of the pages:

To support kids while they write about the strategies they are using, I created Good Readers cards.  The front of each card has the name of a strategy and the back gives a quick explanation of the strategy and thinking stems or sentence frames to help them when writing.  After each strategy lesson, I give the students the strategy card.  They can add it to their ring and keep it clipped to the spiral of their notebook. The cards are also black & white so you can choose to print them on colored paper or let the students color them.  When my students show that they can consistently use the strategy independently, they get a gold star to add to that card.  I used the words "text" and "schema" in the cards so I also added mini-posters with the definition of those terms for your students to reference as needed.  

Included with the cards is also a teacher's set of cards.  The front of the teacher cards has the name of a strategy and the back is blank so you can write in the books you use to teach/model each strategy.  Everyone has different books so I didn't want to fill in the books for you.  But to share ideas, I am hosting a linky party where you can share what books you use to teach the different strategies and then borrow everyone else's ideas too.  Hopefully, you will find plenty of books to fill up the backs of your cards!

As always, if you need different wording or want a new strategy added, email me! 

You can win one of these 2 items!  There are 3 chances to win: 

1. Mention this reading kit on your blog and leave me a comment with the link to your post

2. Follow my blog and leave me a comment saying that you are now a follower

3. Follow my Teachers Notebook store and leave me a comment

I will randomly select a winner on December 1st.

Don't forget to join the linky-party! (I hope it works, I've never done one before!)