I haven’t had much issues with this because students are also doing interactive notebooks for other subjects so they always have their glue with them that they purchased in the beginning of the year. I’ve heard some teachers say that they buy a big pack of glue sticks and sell them to students for the same price that they bought them for at the store. I always provide scissors and crayons (or colored pencils) for my students. In order to start an interactive notebook, you will need students to buy a notebook (or binder) and glue. (2) What do I need if I want my students to start an interactive notebook? Some teachers might even reverse the order.

You might read that some teachers require students put information that they are given (for example, lecture notes or lab worksheets) on the left side (called “teacher input” side) and on the right side what they create (called “student response” or “output” and an example would be like a quick write up or some kind of reflection). That is why if you scavenge the internet looking for ideas on how to do a interactive notebook you will find so many different templates out there. Some teachers might not even ask students to complete reflection activities, or if they do, they might not do it to the extent of what other teachers feel is necessary to actually benefit from an interactive notebook. The reflection activities can be as simple as a quick write up, self reflection, brainstorming, or a drawing.

Most of the interactive activities range from foldables to cut-out activities. The extent to how many interactive and reflection activities varies depending on each teachers’ preferences. I’m still learning but I do love the fact my kids always have paper and their other notes in class.(1) What is an interactive notebook (INB)?Īn interactive notebook is an organized notebook filled with lecture notes, interactive activities, and/or reflection activities.

If you implement interactive notebooks, let me know what you love about them. We love to fold paper, do problems in the boxes, then gluestick them into the notebooks.Ī composition book is just the right size to hold a page printed “2 up” on my printer. Even if we don’t add the color during class, I like the kids to go back to their notes and add color.Ī few other pictures of my students’ notebooks: A note on rubrics & the pedagogy of interactive notebooks: I have something about “uses color to improve clarity of the message” in my rubric. Have kids gluestick the rubric in the back of their notebooks so they know the expectations in advance. I don’t love the one my science department offered up (too bulky), so I’ve Googled around and found a few I appreciate. Otherwise the grading takes forever. You can also distinguish kids who did the assignment when first assigned versus did it just in time for the notebook check (stamp vs no stamp).

checked most of the assignments as they were due - enter the date stamper This is crucial.

I didn’t do it this time around, but I also like to open up to have kids nominate 1-2 pages they are proud of. announced a notebook check and posted the list of pages I’ll be grading I came up with the list based on stuff I wanted to be certain the kids had done (key homework assignments, for example).It’s 4.5 weeks into second semester, my grading period is closing soon, and kiddos need grades in the computer. Let’s look now at how I grade this stuff. In part 1, I talked about how I set up interactive notebooks with my students.

Interactive notebooks rubric