Interactive Reading Notebooks - Tips for Setting them up in your classroom!

In my last post, I wrote about the benefits of using Interactive Notebooks in your classroom.  They really are something that I am passionate about, and I use them in all of my middle school classes.  

I started with using Interactive Notebooks a few years ago, and have slowly added to them through the years.  I will admit that there was a HUGE learning curve involved in their implementation... I made a great many mistakes, and have learned a lot about how to use them effectively.  My confidence with using Interactive Notebooks has really grown over time; every year I feel like I find new ways to use them to help make learning meaningful, as well as ways to improve student organization and decrease my prep time.  I feel like I have really hit my stride with them now though, and am really looking forward to working with other teachers to help them implement them in their classrooms in September. I have a lot of new activities planned, and am excited to try them out :)

A really important thing to remember about Interactive Notebooks is that they require a lot of thought and planning to be done well.  They are going to become student learning records, and things they refer back to throughout the year, so you really don't want to rush through them.  To prevent you from making many of the same mistakes I made when first getting started with them, here are some tips and tricks for getting the most out of using Interactive Notebooks in your classroom.

Tip #1 - Keytab style notebooks work best.

I have tried using several different notebooks styles with my students, but have found keytabs to work best.  The hard covered composition books are great too, but they can be much more expensive; if you plan on using a new notebook for each unit, like I do, the cost can really add up.  Keytabs are really inexpensive.  At the end of August, I pick up huge stacks of them at Staples for 12 cents each for a pack of 4.  I ask my students to bring in their own keytabs as well, but it is always good to have a back up supply for those who forget.  

Keytabs are also great because the paper inside is the same size as a regular sheet of loose leaf.  This is beneficial, because it means that you don't have to reformat all of your handouts to fit inside the notebooks.  Composition book pages are smaller, making re-sizing necessary.  I know some teachers have their students fold their pages before gluing them into composition books, but I really like to see all of the pages clearly without having to unfold everything.

I also like using keytabs because of the number of pages they have.  They have fewer pages than composition books, which is nice when using them for individual units - I don't like having to waste a bunch of extra pages at the back of each book.  If I do end up needing more pages, it is super easy to attach multiple keytabs together - I simply use a strip of fun colored duct tape to bind the spines together.  It adds a punch of color, and the books hold up really well. 

Tip #2 - You will need A LOT of glue sticks.

If you think you have enough glue sticks to get your class started, buy 30 more.  You will be shocked at the amount of glue sticks you will go through.  I seriously feel like I am always buying, and hoarding, glue sticks.  I have tried using the bottles of white glue, and know a lot of teachers who have had huge success with them, but they have not worked for me.  I find them to be too messy, and the kids are forever forgetting to do up the lids, which means I am always dealing with clogged bottles.  While the glue sticks can be a bit more expensive, I find that their ease of use makes it more than worthwhile.  I know that many have found that glue sticks are not strong enough to hold items inside their notebooks, but I have honestly never found this to be a problem.  Glue sticks are more expensive though, so you may want to have your students bring in their own and use yours as backups.

Tip #3 - When possible, pre-cut.

Even though I am currently teaching middle school students, their lack of cutting skills is appalling.  I am seriously shocked by their inability to cut straight.  Because of this, and my obsession with having everything in their notebooks neat and tidy, I pre-cut notebook materials whenever I can.  The kids are usually ok with cutting out a basic worksheet, but when foldables or small pieces of paper are required, I try and cut out the materials before class starts.  Sometimes time constraints make this difficult, but things tend to go much smoother when I do get the chance.  This can be a great job for peer tutors, parent volunteers, or students who finish early!  Cutting can also be time consuming - pre-cutting helps save valuable class time!

Tip #4 - Use a "Tidy Tub".

I am not sure where I first heard of this, but I absolutely love the idea and have had great success with it in my classroom.  Basically, you place a small bin, or "tidy tub" in the middle of each group of desks in your classroom.  When cutting, have students place their leftover scraps into the bin.  This keeps the garbage off the floor, and prevents students from getting up every two minutes to go to the recycling bin.  At the end of class, designate one kid from each group to get up and empty the tub into the recycling bin.  This saves tons of time, and works really, really well.

Tip #5 - Be realistic.
As I mentioned earlier, integrating Interactive Notebooks into your classroom takes significant thought and planning.  No matter how enthusiastic you are about implementing them, they can quickly become overwhelming if you don't have a plan.  Be kind to yourself - everything you do does not need to be pinterest-worthy!  Not everything you put into your notebooks is going to look beautiful and perfect; real learning can be a messy process, and sometimes your student's notebooks will reflect this.  You may want to start small, and only do one Interactive Notebook unit to start with.  This will help you get into the groove, and feel out if you think it will work for you.  Later, after you have worked out the kinks, you can slowly add more and more Interactive Notebook units.

Tip #6 - Develop (or purchase) some "go-to" graphic organizers and templates.
Before you get started, make sure you have a variety of graphic organizers to get you started.  It is a good idea to find some tried and true resources you are already comfortable with, and find a way to adapt them for use in Interactive Notebooks.  Remember, not everything has to be fancy!  There are a ton of awesome Interactive Notebook resources already available at Teachers Pay Teachers to help make your life easier - check mine out here!

Tip #7 - Create a "Master Teacher Notebook".
As you work through each Interactive Notebook unit with your students, create a "Master Teacher Notebook" alongside them.  This allows you to model the process, and show students exactly what you are looking for.  As a teacher, it allows you to focus specifically on what you want each page to look like.  Having a model for students to refer to helps to avoid a lot of questions about particular aspects of page setup, giving you more time to help kids.  An added bonus is that it become a really helpful resource for students to access when they are away - they simply need to check the master notebook to see what work they have missed, and what resources they need to pick up.

Tip #8 - Remember that organization is a learned skill.
Teaching students to organize their notebooks in the way you would like will take time.  There is only a very small percentage of the population who have natural organizational skills - the rest of us need tools, instruction, modeling, and a whole lot of nagging to keep things neat and tidy.  Overtime this will get easier, but it does take time.  Whenever you get frustrated, it is good to remember that the organizational skills you teach your students will carry over into their future classes, making them much more successful students in the future.

Tip #9 - Have all supplies ready to go.
As much as I like to have my students come prepared each class with the scissors, glue sticks, and markers, I can guarantee that someone (usually quite a few someones) forgets something.  Instead of having my students run back and forth from their lockers, I make sure I have a supply of scissors, glue sticks, and markers in tubs along the back shelf of my classroom.  If kids forget their supplies, they know exactly where to go to grab what they need.  This saves a significant amount of class time, and makes the construction of our Interactive Notebooks so much easier.  At the end of the school year, as students clear out their lockers, I often have students throwing away half used supplies - this is a great time to save these things from the trash and have students donate random markers and glue sticks for your class room.

Tip #10 - Teach and model expectations.
To make things run smoothly, you will need to teach and model routines, expectations, and material management.  The end goal should be that students can construct their notebooks independently.  It takes time, and a lot of modeling, but eventually students should be able to put together their notebooks without a lot of adult intervention.  The more your students get familiar with using their notebooks, the easier and faster the process will get.  As with all things in the classroom, the more time you spend at the start of the year teaching and modeling rules and expectations, the easier things will be later on.

Hopefully these tips help you to get things started with Interactive Notebooks in your classroom.  Do you have any additional tips or tricks?  Leave me a comment in the section below - I would love to hear your ideas!

If you are looking for some great Interactive Notebook resources, I encourage you to check out my Teachers Pay Teachers store by clicking here.  I have included a preview of my newest Interactive Notebook product below - simply click on it to be taken to my store :)

  

Everything you ever wanted to know about using Interactive Notebooks in your classroom!

If you have been following me for a while, it should be no surprise to you how much I love using Interactive Notebooks in my classroom.  After first seeing them used in the Science classroom across the hall from me, I quickly fell in love - I loved the way they kept the kids organized, and how the kids had a record of their learning, that showed growth over time.  The next year, I began implementing them with my grade seven and eight students, and have not looked back.  

I will admit that this undertaking has been a huge work in progress.  I have had many hiccups along the way, but have found that the benefits have made all of the work worth it.  I have learned that Interactive Notebooks are certainly not just for elementary students, as my middle school students eagerly await opportunities to participate in anything interactive.  This different way of structuring our learning shakes things up a bit, which is exactly what a lot of my disengaged teenage learners need.  I am hugely passionate about using them with my students.

Research has shown many benefits to using Interactive Notebooks.  To me, the very best part of using Interactive Notebooks in my classroom is that they promote engagement, creativity, and analytical thinking - all things I strive for in my middle school classroom.  They keep my struggling students organized, make differentiating for my higher learners a breeze, provide a record of our learning, and become a student-created reference tool to refer back to when needed - honestly, I can't imagine how I ever structured my classes without them.

Lately, I have had a lot of people ask me about Interactive Notebooks, and how I use them in my classroom - sounds like a fun blog post to me!  I really wish I had few tips before getting started, as it would have caused me to bypass some of the wrong turns I made along the way.  

So... what are Interactive Notebooks, anyways?

I have seen Interactive Notebooks called many things - Reader/Writer Notebooks, Interactive Student Notebooks, Response Journals, etc.  Call them what you will, they are essentially a notebook of some sort that is used to record information.  The key is in the "interactive" part, which makes then fun and engaging - a hit with students of many different age groups.  Basically, Interactive Notebooks allow students to take information supplied by the teacher, and merge it with their own thinking.  The foldables and activities within the Interactive Notebook allow students to work with information they have gathered, creating deeper connections to the content.  Instead of just taking passive notes, students are encouraged to "show what they know" by applying their knowledge in a creative way.

In "Classroom Instruction that Works", Marzano, Pickering, and Pollock state that "taking notes and summarizing information is a proven thinking strategy that helps to increase student achievement and retain new information".  Providing students with information and then asking them to use thinking strategies to actually interact with it in some way helps the information to stick in their brains much more than simply listening to a lecture or taking notes from the board.  Creating the foldables and activities within the Interactive Notebooks increase student abilities to organize and connect to class content.  

In my past few years of using Interactive Notebooks in my middle school classroom, I have discovered the following benefits:

Interactive Notebooks are powerful educational tools.

Interactive Notebooks enable students to be creative and independent thinkers and writers.  They allow students to express their ideas in unique and engaging ways, and process information presented in class; as students learn new ideas, they have the opportunity to use several types of interactive writing and graphic techniques to record and process them.  The ultimate goal of using Interactive Notebooks in the classroom is to teach students to be independent thinkers and note takers; Interactive Notebooks teach students about the tools and strategies needed to eventually do this on their own.  The activities completed in Interactive Notebooks are so much more than cutesy cut and paste images; instead, they teach students to interact with content at a high level, and to make that content their own.  

Interactive Notebooks meet the needs of a variety of learning styles.

Interactive Notebooks allow visual learners to explore new ways to share ideas, and encourages non-visual learners to become more proficient with graphic approaches in a non-threatening way.  Both types of learners use the notebooks to work on their writing skills, while learning valuable note taking strategies.  I have found that my kinesthetic learners enjoy moving around and using their hands to assemble the bits and pieces.

Interactive Notebooks help students to systematically organize while they learn.

Students use Interactive Notebooks to organize their thoughts and ideas.  A variety of organizational techniques are used to synthesize concepts and help make sense of what they learn.  The notebook allows assignments to be kept together in a regular place and in a logical order.  Students who struggle with organization (and I am sure you have as many of those as I do!) often find the notebooks very helpful.  Instead of a million random worksheets, students have everything organized together in one place.  Our Interactive Notebooks cause us to spend a significant amount of time in class teaching these organization skills, which students are able to take with them into other subject areas.

Interactive Notebooks become portfolios of individual learning.

These creative notebooks become records of each student's growth.  The teacher, student, and parents can use the notebooks to review a student's progress in writing, illustrating, recording, thinking, and organizing.  They are an amazing portfolio to pull out during parent conferences.  Gone are the days of gathering up and storing assignments, as now I simply have to pull out our Interactive Notebooks to show parents what we have been up to.  These notebooks are an excellent summary of our learning, and parents always seem to be impressed.  Student growth can clearly be seen as they progress throughout the school year.

Interactive Notebooks are a work in progress, and allow students to learn from their mistakes.

I have my students complete a new notebook at the start of each unit.  Throughout the unit, notebooks are collected sporadically, and checked for completion.  When improvement is needed, sticky notes with constructive criticism are added.  As the notebooks are not collected for marks until the very end of a unit, students have multiple opportunities to receive feedback and improve their work before receiving a final mark.

Interactive Notebooks are valuable study tools.

As all of the information needed for each unit is contained inside the Interactive Notebook, the notebooks become comprehensive study guides created by the students themselves.  Interactive Notebooks help teach students new ways to study, and the activities within the notebooks often provide students with visual pictures to help remember content.  Having everything complete, organized, and in one place makes studying much easier.  Interactive Notebooks also teach students to be resourceful - when they get stuck in class, or forget how to do something, they can refer back to the information they have previously gathered.  They quickly become the "go to" resource  for students to go over concepts they have missed or are struggling with.  Throughout the course of the year, students are essentially creating their very own textbook; I can guarantee these self-created textbooks are much more meaningful to students.

Interactive Notebooks are fun, hands on, and engaging.

The activities we complete while putting together our Interactive Notebooks bring with them high levels of student engagement.  The kids are actively involved, moving around, and being creative while creating things that flip, flap, and fold - these hands on activities really give students the opportunity to grasp concepts further.  Interactive Notebooks turn the boring necessity of note taking into something kids actually look forward to.  No one remembers doing a boring worksheet, but I can guarantee you that my students can look back in their notebooks and remember completing each activity.  This engagement really helps them to remember concepts better.  When kids enjoy using these methods for note taking, they are much more likely to use them as a study and reference tool.  

Interactive Notebooks allow students to develop pride and ownership over their work.

According to research on Interactive Notebooks, they are most beneficial when they are used as a learning tool developed by students, for students.  Through the creation of our Interactive Notebooks, students actively interact with content, providing records of their learning.  Essentially Interactive Notebooks become records of learning that are physically put together by the students. Because of this, students take ownership, and are proud of the work they put into their Interactive Notebooks.  They spend a lot of time creating them, take care of them, and want to share them with others.  Very, very rarely have I had an Interactive Notebook go missing, even though I let my students take them home with them.  My students regularly spend their free time coloring them up, and they become beautiful and personal records of their learning.  When students create something they are proud of, they are much more likely to use it as their "go to" resource.

Interactive Notebooks are great for teachers, too!

Using Interactive Notebooks in our classrooms allow us reflect on our student's learning styles, as they are a great way to analyze student understanding of new concepts.  Many of the activities we complete in our Interactive Notebooks are perfect examples of formative assessment.  As teachers, we can then use the information we have gathered to create, plan, and manage our small group instruction.  The Interactive Notebooks I use in my classroom show everything we learned, when we learned it, and how we learned it.  As the year goes on, I make notes in my teacher version of areas we struggled and areas that went well.  This makes lesson planning so much easier the following year!

I really hope this post inspires you to give Interactive Notebooks a try in your classroom.  They are a surefire way to increase student engagement, organization, and accountability in your classroom.

Do you use Interactive Notebooks in your classroom?  If so, I would love to hear about it!  Tell me about how you use them by leaving a comment in the comment section!

Exploring Gary Paulsen's Hatchet

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen is one of my very favorite novels to teach.  I am always on the hunt for ways to pull in my struggling boys, and the male protagonist and survival theme really seems to suck them in.  The book is also one of my eleven year old daughter's all time favorites, so I can say with all honesty that the story is really appealing to adventurous young girls as well.

There is so much that you can do with this novel.  It makes a great literature circle book, as it pairs really nicely with other survival themed novels, such as Scott O'Dell's Island of the Blue Dolphins, Jean Craighead George's Julie of the Wolves or My Side of the Mountain,  Shipwreck or Everest by Gordon Korman, Deathwatch by Robb White, The Cay by Theodore Taylor, or The Girl Who Owned a City by O.T. Nelsen.  The similar themes of these stories would make for some great class discussion and compare/contrast activities.  

Youtube has some great videos about the novel.  I usually use an interview with Gary Paulsen that I found on youtube to introduce the author.

I like the way he talks about his life as a writer and his reasons for writing.  To keep the kids focused while we watch, I like to handout a few quick questions for them to complete while watching.  We glue these in at the beginning of our Hatchet Interactive Notebooks, and discuss the answers as a class.  If you would like a set of the questions we use (with answer key and video link), you can download it for free at my Teachers Pay Teachers Store here.

As the theme of the novel revolves around survival, I like to introduce the novel by discussing some wilderness survival tips.  I have collected a variety of tips on a handout, and we go over the tips and discuss them as a class.  After discussion, I have the kids brainstorm and write about the tip they think is most important.  The kids always enjoy this, and I find it to be a fun pre-reading activity to get them excited about the book.  We usually get some pretty good class debates going on, as the kids like to argue over which tip is most important.

In the past, I have had the kids complete chapter questions when we complete each chapter of the novel.  I like these questions in particular because they include vocabulary words and opportunities for the kids to express their learning in an artistic way.  This has been a good way to work on their vocabulary and to make sure they are understanding what they are reading.  

This past year, however, I decided to switch things up a bit.  We had been learning about summarizing, and I really wanted the kids to get some practice with these skills while reading through the novel.   To do this, I decided to have them summarize and illustrate what happens in each chapter.  This was a nice break from chapter questions, and the kids like the opportunity to show their understanding in artistic form.  I also really loved how the completed projects looked!  We hung them on the wall outside our classroom for a bit, and then glued them into our Hatchet Interactive Notebooks.

  

The little image on the left of Brian with mosquito bites makes me giggle every time I see it.  The kids had so much fun with these and I really love how they turned out.

As we progress through the novel, we spend a significant amount of time brainstorming the ways Brian has changed from the beginning of the novel towards the end.  I have them do a compare and contrast organizer in small groups, which we then go over and add to as a class.  When we are done, I have them glue them into their Hatchet Interactive Notebooks, as they will need to refer back to them for the next activity.

For this activity, the kids are required to illustrate and discuss the changes that Brian went through during the novel.  It makes for a great visual representation of Brian before and after.  I like the way this assignment forces kids have to look at the changes that occurred in Brian both on the inside and outside.  Again, the kids loved being able to use art to show their understanding, and I love how they turned out.  Once they were complete, we glued them into our Hatchet Interactive Notebooks.

If you are interested in picking up any of the resources shown in this post, you can pick them up at my Teachers Pay Teachers store by clicking here or on one of the images below.

Do you teach this novel in your classroom?  I would love to hear about some of the activities that work for you!

Ancient Egypt: The Nile River

When learning about Ancient Egypt, we spend a significant amount of time learning about the Nile River.  We talk a lot about the key features of a civilization, and the ways the Nile helped the people of Egypt to thrive.  To start, we do some read alouds about the Nile River.  (Can you tell I love children's books?)

Later, we take some notes in our Interactive Notebook about the Nile River.  I really like doing foldables for this - I am a big fan of the interactive nature of foldables, and find they make note taking much more tolerable (by both me and them!). We talk a lot about the gifts of the Nile here, and discuss the ways these things helped Egypt become such a great civilization.

  We also talk a lot about the annual cycle of the river, and end our Nile River study with 3D Nile River Cubes.  These cubes summarize all of the information we have learned about the Nile River, in both written and visual form.  I love tying strings to the completed cubes and hanging them from the classroom ceiling, or stacking them to make a class pyramid.  So fun!  Sadly, I forgot to take a picture of the completed cubes this year - I will have to make sure to do it next time!

All of the resources I used for these activities are available in my TPT store.  Links to the different Egypt themed lessons I have available can be found under the Social Studies Tab at the top of this page :)