Using Writer's Notebook with Adolescent ESL Writers

This study describes ESL adolescent students’ attitudes, opinions and experiences using the writer’s notebooks in an ESL class. Particularly, this study aims at exploring and understanding students’ opinions and attitudes regarding the impact of the writer’s notebook activity on specific English writing projects. The significance of this study rests on the opportunity it gives to the participants to have their voices heard regarding their opinions and experiences during a course designed to link reading and writing activities. A qualitative research design was used data collected including one-on-one interviews with participants, observation and field notes recorded by the instructor/ researcher, and a collection of participant generated files. The intent of the research was to consider participants’ attitudes regarding the use of the writer’s notebooks during their class; what impact they believe the writer’s notebook had on their progress in terms of completing their writing projects for the class; and their views on continued use of the writer’s notebook in the future. The findings of this study indicated that the students engaged in the writer’s notebook for the first time during the class and that the students had positive attitudes toward using the writer’s notebook as a tool to complete their writing projects. In addition, the research also revealed that writing down their thoughts, opinions and perspectives in the writer’s notebook helped students not only to improve their writing competence, but also to understand the content of reading materials. Of special interest, the findings also revealed that the participants developed deeper understandings regarding English writing strategies which they may be able to use when writing English in the future.