The reader’s notebook is an integral part of reading workshop and is a great tool for authentic assessment.  It goes hand-in-hand with read-aloud with accountable talk and will really be powerful if students learn to talk deeply in preparation for writing.  The main reason for a reader’s notebook, in my opinion, is to deepen students’ ability to think, talk, and write about their reading. Pictured here are a few entries from my own reader’s notebook.  Pictures from student notebooks can be found in the Student Work album.

Update (2/19/14): New entries are at the beginning - these were used for modeling how to write in response to the literacy prompt cards posted here. Most are in the read-aloud or independent reading section of my notebook, depending on where I expected students to put them.