There are times when I want to provide students with a helpful handout that will assist them with an independent reading task or a sheet that I think they might want to reference when reading on their own. Examples include decoding strategies, class charts (that I type up after a mini-lesson), etc.

I like this Mini-Lesson Handouts section of the Reader's Notebook because students can easily access resources from mini-lessons during independent reading, and I can also refer to the handouts when conferring with students if I find it necessary to reference a specific lesson or concept I have previously taught.

I make sure to only ask students to add a handout to their table of contents if I truly think they may refer to it at a later time. Each time students add a handout to their binder, they write the title of the handout on their "Mini-Lesson Handout Table of Contents" and write a page number on the bottom of the handout.