Interactive Notebooks

[Kristi Barber]

I have been throwing around the idea of using interactive notebooks this year with my 7th and 8th graders. I have seen a couple blog posts about the use of the interactive notebooks and am intrigued. I was wondering if anyone uses these and exactly how they work. Do you have directions you give out? Rubric? Also how is the response from students and parents? Any help would be great. Thanks!

[Miss Teacha]

I had trouble with them this year.. . I think I'm going back to binders, using elements of the interactive notebooks.    I love the idea of having students respond to their notes, the biggest problem I had was adding in handouts.  And sometimes, I needed to give a handout for certain things.  So, this year, I think my World History classes will go back to binders and African American history will continue to use spirals.

[Brian Thomas]

Kristi,

I created a unit for the start of the school year that is based on our approach at TCI and incorporates some of the ideas found in The First Days of School by Harry Wong. These lessons are free. You can alter or change anything you need. By the way, the second lesson in the unit is on the topic of Interactive Student Notebooks, which we are most famous for.

 

Here's the link to the complete unit: http://teachergenius.teachtci.com/basic-training-starting-the-schoo...

 

You'll also find a ton of other great resources where this link takes you. Most are submitted from teachers in the trenches and many are topical to the notebook, web tools, and many other important issues.

 

Please let me know if there is anything else I can provide in terms of resources: [e-mail] or @Brian_ThomasTCI on Twitter.

[Leticia Hallmark]

I've used the notebooks for years and love them.  My students have a love/hate relationship with them though - loving them at the end but not-so-much during the year lol.  My students are 8th graders so let me give you a couple of warnings:  show them lots of samples and keep a master; use tape not glue...and pass it out each time you hand out a paper (otherwise one of your kids will use the whole roll for one piece of paper- or use the whole glue stick --you know those jr. highers); cut the pages to fit before you hand out to kids; and most importantly, set a timer that gives them enough time to get organized and then move on.  If you go to my webpage and scroll down, you can see the instructions, initial handouts I give kids, rubric, and slideshow I use for set up.  Good luck! Ms. Hallmark's Spiral

[Miss Teacha]

what is the link to your website.  I couldn't find it.  And the orange text didn't work in your post.

[Kristi Barber]

I would love any advice or examples. I need to make my mind up and write up an expectations sheet.

[Andrew Bianco]

Kristi, I think your idea of Interactive Notebooks is a great idea. I have not tried this practice, but I would like to discuss more about it and look into this and see how it can be used in the classroom. What have you read? How would you use the notebooks? We have over a month to get this moving and hear from others that have been successful.

[Leticia Hallmark]

Here is the direct link to the quia page I use for my assignments  http://www.quia.com/pages/lhallmark/page8  You can also link to it from my main webpage at http://delvalle.tx.schoolwebpages.com/education/staff/staff.php?sec...

I use the quia account so my students can have easy access to make up quizzes, all the PowerPoints from class, vocabulary, and games; but it's not the only thing I use.  The notebook PowerPoint instructions are where I start.  You can also see some examples from the spirals from the schoolwebpages - go to classroom celebrations and check out some of the pictures.

 

Hope this helps

 

[Leticia Hallmark]

Oh when you go to quia page, be sure to scroll down to where it says Class Notebook.  Then click on each of the files below the header to give you an idea.

:)

[Kristi Barber]

Leticia, I want to be in your class! I love the celebration page! I am going to steal this idea. I too use quia. Do you have your students take all their tests and quizzes online? I am going to use schoology.com this year and they have a test maker in which I can import my test makerquestions. (Which I cannot do in quia) What age are your classes that are not AP? Do you have many students that refuse to complete the notebook? Or lose it? I require them to keep everything (notes, homework, worksheets)and give them a grade for it after each chapter test and I have students that can't/won't do that! So many questions! I am greatful for any advice you may have.

[Leticia Hallmark]

Ok Notebooks...are part of warm up....kids come in, do their bell ringer (vocab) and get their spiral set up...I give them one little piece of tape to put on the top of the handout so they can still write underneath the page they tape in - that way, no paper waste.  All my students do this, and some are better than others...they're between 12-14.  They keep the spiral in a pocket folder where they keep their vocabulary lists.  Everything else goes in the spiral.  I don't have anyone who just REFUSES to do it - I take that back...I did have a special-needs kid who struggled with it - but we paired him up with someone who helped.  His wasn't the best, but it did get completed.  I do have several lose it - and believe it or not, in 8th grade, some kids think it's funny to "hide" it from others and even others steal some to try and copy.  I have kids write their names in multiple places in the spiral so if it does get "lost," no-one else can get credit for their work.  Also I keep a master spiral so if it's lost, I have the student recreate the spiral - but just for the unit we're currently covering.  I also start fresh each grading cycle gradewise....they still need to update their table of contents, but I don't take off for things in a previous unit.  The first six weeks we do everything in class - the unit page, even the ROC (I have them write a reflection of the first six weeks).  After that, they're on their own.  If students still struggle with their spirals, I have them stay after to get it all organized.  I also have the kids in groups and part of the grade they get every so often is how well everyone at their table is organized.  I kind of have a mind set that we are our brother's keeper, and we should help each other.  I only have one Pre-AP class and six regular - two of those are inclusion too so...lots of different personalities to work with.  There are kids who flat just aren't that great about organization but if they do the class part, they at least make a 70.  I make sure spirals help a student's grade and don't  hurt it UNLESS they're the student who flat doesn't do anything in which case I use the spiral as evidence during the RTI and demand for tutoring.  We have mandatory tutoring for anyone failing and if it's because of things like the spiral, we have a separate way to get these kids on track.

[Leticia Hallmark]

Also I model how students should put the papers in and time it.  Using music helps too. We don't spend more than 2-3 minutes on this - less if there's not a writing component like a preview.  Kids have 5 minutes from the bell to do their bell ringer vocab and set up spiral and be ready.  Anything else, they have to finish it on their own.  And I move around the room helping kids who need it and STAMP the page with a cool stamp if they're on task, getting it done within time frame.  They work for stickers and stamps.  I sometimes too have a kid who finishes early or forgets their spiral to do the stamping for me. 

I've kept the spirals in the room and had the kids keep them.  We don't have lockers.  I prefer to have the kids hold them but I will let some of those with tendency to lose them use a small space on my bookshelf to store theirs - sort of an accommodation, if you will.

As far as grading, I pick up one period at a time and rotate which class has to turn theirs in first.  Ex.  Mon - 1st and 7th, Tues 2nd and 6th, etc.  That way I'm not bogged down horribly trying to grade 165 spirals in one night.  The first six weeks, I grade the spirals carefully and comment a lot.  After that, I check for basic components.  My grade level partner also tells the kids about 2-5 assignments he'll be grading from the spiral.  I don't - I grade assignments separately. You have to figure out what works for you best.

[Leticia Hallmark]

As for quia...I love it.  I don't use it for testing exclusively - mainly for makeups and practice tests.  I decided to use it when my administrators insisted we allow all students to make up work they blew off the last day of the grading cycle.  Frankly I just couldn't grade all the "makeup" work so.....every Friday, my kids take a vocab quiz...Then I post a makeup on quia that they can retake as many times they need for full credit.  This kills two birds so to speak.  If a kid really doesn't know the material, he or she can practice until they do.  My administrators are happy because now when they come to me and say what can Arnold do to bring up his grade...well they can retake their quizzes or do some of the extra credit I list on my webpage.  I really struggled with this at first...but I came to the realization that even if a student "cheats" by using their vocab list or notes to take the quizzes online, in the time they're spending thinking about what goes where, they actually learn what I want them to learn.  Admin doesn't even come to me anymore, they just direct the kid to the webpage. We also use their games for review for the big tests. I've found I can import anything on quia...from state benchmark pics and tables to handouts, and it's easier to post videos than my school's webpage.  Texas is starting something called Project Share - which is supposed to be like schoology in a way so I'm waiting to see what happens with that before I add it to my repoitoire lol.