Tell me about them. What do you use them for? How do you use them? How do you grade them? Any info is helpful since I have never done them before but would like too.
I use interactive notebooks and LOVE them!!! Look at this site: http://cynthiasparks.tripod.com/interactive_notebook.htm It gives some great info on the notebooks.
I did a reading notebook last year where we did mini lessons on what they could write about after reading. I would usually give them a few minutes after we did Read to Self for Daily 5 to reflect. I have to be honest, I didn't keep it up like I wanted to, it takes a lot of time to read their books and I would collect a few every week. I don't believe they should be writing without an audience though. I just started taking a Masters course in Science Notebooking...I will let you know more when I figure it out
Love this! I've never heard of these, but can't wait to implement in my Social Studies class this year. The curriculum changed and I won't have a series to teach from, so this will be a GREAT way to organize information! Thanks!
I want to use these this year! One of my teacher friends gave me the History Alive! book. I'm not 100% sure of what subjects I'll be teaching but if I do Science or Social studies I'm definitely using interactive notebooks.
Some other great sites are: http://www.primaryteachers.org/interactive_notebooks.htm http://ralston.brssd.org/stephaniewald.html?bpid=6397 https://sites.google.com/a/aveson.org/mrs-rachel/interactive-science-notebook and my absolute favorite http://interactive-notebooks.wikispaces.com/ I have used Interactive Notebooks for years and love them. I have presented several professional development sessions on them and am doing another at the NSTA regional in New Orleans in November.
Thanks for the great links chemteach . .. . not to hi-jack, but this works well with high schoolers? I have always been interested in interactive notebooks but wasn't sure it would work with high schoolers? And I think I would rather use a binder than a sprial notebook? Do you think a binder would be as affective?
I think that it works great with high school students. My very organized students loved it and it helped my less organized students get more organized. I used spiral notebooks for the first time last year (I had always used binders before). I am going back to a binder because I really do not use my textbook so I give lots of handouts with problems, etc. I found that the spiral notebooks became bulky because there were so many papers glued in.
I made my own for science and social studies, and I use a modified version for math (note, I love technology and I love making things on my computer). I found that I used them more than the textbook, because the textbooks are not written for our state standards, and I usually have 50 to 75 percent of my class reading below grade level in September, so the texts are too high to do much more than shared reading. The textbooks are a supplement to the notebooks. I like that kids can highlight, take notes, and write meanings of unfamiliar words right on the page as they are reading, which they cannot do in a textbook. In some years, I have collected them at the end of the unit and graded them. This year, not so much. We have the kids buy 5-star notebooks, or other brands that have the plastic cover, and they tend to last all year.
My 7th grade daughter's school used these for many subjects, some classes used a sprial and one class was a binder. I loved them because I could see what she was working on.
I've seen some implemented really well and were tremendous resources. I've also seen some poorly implemented that were a waste of time. I also think their usefulness diminishes as the age of the child gets younger. Of course, there are exceptions which a previous poster mentioned regarding not having aligned text books and not having students able to read what they have, but in younger grades, it isn't always as substantial as the origional intent.
I used a modified version last year for half of the year. Then administration decided that it did not fit for our school so I had to do away with it. The students loved it as did parents. I liked the fact that the students had everything in one place and it made them accountable for keeping their stuff organized. If given the opportunity to use it again I would in a heartbeat.
I attribute them (and lots of hands-on activities) to all my fifth graders passing the state exam with most commended. My fave site: www.sciencenotebooks.org I plan to use them with my 7th grade math remedial students in the future.
My daughter's English notebook had vocab, comp questions, notes on stories read and discussed in class, reading log; all a little different than what some of the links show but I still really liked being able to see her work almost daily.