I'm not using them, but our 5th grade Social Studies teacher started using them with History Alive. Now the team uses interactive notebooks for Math, Science, Social Studies, and novels.
I think it is a great idea. I remember JH and HS teachers expecting us to just know how to keep a notebook. We were never taught how to take notes. I think this is a skill kids need to be taught.
I've been using them in social studies for 4 or 5 years. I love them. I tried to use them in language arts, but I wasn't as successful. I've also changed things a lot since we started. They were pretty bad that first year, but they've vastly improved.
I bumped into them in a blog or something and took a shallow dive to look around. The ones I looked at were called 'lapbooks'. Google 'lapbooks' and you'll see a lot of samples and info. I've a very visual person, I liked the idea.
Hi sweetie! Thanks for checking up on me the other day. Sorry it took me so long to notice it.
Things have been a challenge of late in the health department, but I'm making it. Day by day kind of thing.
I love the interactive notebook process. I haven't actually used it myself...just parts of it, but I can see where it would really work in the history classroom.
Anything that helps students "own" the process of learning is a win in my book.
Didn't you write about this before?
You've inspired me to try interactive notebooks--next year!
I love this idea, but I am going to be stuck teaching Language Arts; I think I could adapt this idea to what we do in 5th grade, however. I need to do some more thinking because what I've done isn't working. And with the cuts in our budget, we won't be copying anything next year.
I'm a 5th grade LA teacher. I've seen a lot of IN examples and such for all content areas...Does anyone know of any already set up to get a better feel for reading and/or writing?
I saw them in a LA room before I even knew what they were. I attempted it this year with binders. However, I'm going to work over the summer and create one with an actual notebook and try it again next year.
Ah, the trials and tribulations of the ISN. I've been modifying my notebooks over the course of 5 yrs., and I am finally finding a system that works for me. I teach in a medium to high income SD (Jr. High), so I suggest my students buy a Mead 5 star 3-5 subject spiral notebook (one that will easily fit an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper.) For most of my students, this isn't a problem. However, I always have a few who will not bring them. We also have a principal that insists that students should not be expected to bring any supplies to school. Teachers are expected to fork over their own paycheck for supplies, which in our SD, we receive no $ for. So to solve this, I buy a stack of the cheap 10 cent ones for these students and they trim their pages.
I used to have students glue pages, which was a HUGE pain. Glue ended up everywhere, was lost/stolen, and was a waste of paper, as the backs of paper couldn't be utlized for copies. Now we make "flip-its" by stapling papers twice along the side. This way we can utlize both the front and back of paper, in addition to stapling assignments with multiple pages.
I've given up on the right vs. left side orientation--it just didn't work for me. The biggest issue I had with it was that I might have notes on the right that cover several concepts (e.g. Hunderd Yrs. War, Black Death, decline of fedualsim) and yet only one spot for a left-side "output" assingment. Sure, I can do another left on the following pages, but then I found myself looking for another right hand to go along w/it. Ironically, TCIs own ISN workbook doesn't follow this format. Now, we place our assignments in sequencial order and I have not seen any drastic changes in student achievement.
Now, if I can only find a manageable way to grade these suckers...
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