From my first day of teaching, I always had my students keep a personal classroom notebook. It wasn’t “interactive”. At the time, it was only used for bell work writing prompts and Spelling pretests.

As time went on, the notebook started evolving. I had students producing more work in their notebooks. This meant, more pages were getting used and students were going back into their notebooks to extend their learning.

Before I knew it, the notebook turned into a portfolio of work that was a complete final product at the end of the school year.

Benefits of Using Interactive Notebooks

–Help students stay on task (believe it or not). Some students need structure to survive in school. With an interactive notebook, it will helps students stay focused on what to do next, especially if you add a table of contents.

–Keeps all writing materials organized. If you want to build on prior knowledge, you can easily have students go back to into the notebook to find topics to build on.

–Provides skill building. Students will be able to see the progression of skills they have learned and how one skill leads to the next. This is also very important for them understanding their “why” about what they are learning.

–Reveal student growth. As students build upon their skills they will notice their own growth with their writing, graded assignments, overall knowledge.

–Allow students to have ownership of the learning. When students take part in putting together their interactive notebook, this assists with student ownership. Give students a chance to decorate and really show who they are as a learner.

–Give students a final end of the year product. The best part…students have something that is tangible that they can be proud of and keep. I had former students in high school say they look back at their interactive notebooks from middle school. I love it! Oh yeah, Parents love it too!

Ways to use Interactive Notebooks:

Vocabulary

One really simple way I started shifting a student notebook into an interactive notebook is with using vocabulary words.

At the beginning of every unit, I had students open their notebooks and they would copy down the vocabulary words for that unit. Then they would use a dictionary to define the words.

Throughout the unit, the students can go back into their notebook and find the vocabulary word and definition to use in any of their assignments.

As an incentive, I had students who filled out all their vocabulary words and definitions be able to use their notebook while test taking.

Bell work/ Do Now/ Entry Task

Sometimes the process of getting materials glued into interactive notebooks is lengthy. So when students enter the classroom, I give them a handout to have glued into their notebook so they are ready to start class.

Reader Response

Giving students a chance to respond to reading works very well with interactive notebooks. It can assist students expand their thinking and build even more on their writing that can form into a formal analysis. I have a list of reader response questions in my post on reading logs.

Spelling Practice

When I give spelling pretests, I would have students complete them in their interactive notebook. Any words they spelled incorrectly, I would have them write down the correctly. Then throughout the week, they can look back to review the words they missed to be ready for the final test.

Writing Prompts

Writing prompts can also be used as bell work as well. This is what I have mainly used them for. The daily writing prompt was completed in student’s interactive journal that was a minimum of 5 sentences. Students would answer a question that would lead lead into the day’s lesson, and also would be given the opportunity to share out.

Also, I would designate days where students would have free writes, where they can write anything that they wanted to in their journal. On creative writing days we used Story Cubes. My students loved these!

Notes

Writing notes in the class interactive notebook is a great way for students to use as study guides and possibly use for assessments. It is a great tool to prepare students on a small scale for what is coming when they get to higher education.

For students with ELL or Special Education services I am able to give them fill-in-the blank templates for note taking. This makes it manageable for them to take notes and be successful at it.

Rough Draft Writing

At the beginning of teaching essays, I have students do all their writing in one place. this way they can access the task, brainstorming, an outline, rough draft all in one place. I also give them a rubric to glue in their notebook so they can see where their final writing product needs to go.

How to Grade an Interactive Notebooks

This is very personal preference. Based off time, the number of students you have, what the building administration expectations are, can all be factors.

Personally, I grade once a quarter. Students get participation grades for working in their notebook. But an overall grade on everything quarterly.

I keep track of everything in the teacher notebook that I use to model for the class. The way this works for me is that I require dates to everything that is glued in or anything written on the page.

Spiral or Composition Notebooks

Some teachers want only composition notebooks. Some want spirals. This is all just personal preference. I base my interactive notebooks real loosely from how other educators are doing it.

I don’t care what notebooks my students have at all. It’s hard for a lot of my students to get notebooks in the first place, so if they come with a spiral, awesome, if not, I will go buy it for them.

Usually, this is whatever I can find in the after back to school sales. So I really don’t start using the interactive notebook until at least the 3rd week in school.

I also don’t have my student make a table of contents, so then I don’t tell them to use page numbers. Overall, I use the notebook for more of a variety of things, like keeping track of reading fluency number and reading progress levels, especially since I teach ELA Special Education.

Final Thoughts

If you are worried about the time it might take to start using interactive notebooks in your classroom. Don’t be. It is really effortless. I have seen interactive notebooks work in all content areas, social studies, science, math, and special education resource room.

Do you use interactive notebooks? If you are thinking about trying them out, what are some things that are holding you back? Let me know down in the comments section!