Home | How It Works | Stats Login | Register         Case: Interactive Notebooks-Completion Problems This year I decided to have my science classes put together interactive science notebooks. They took spiral notebooks and created a table of contents in the front and then numbered each of their pages. Any notes that we took in class were glued onto the left side of their notebook. The right sides of their notebooks I asked them to basically summarize the notes from the left side. They could do this in a variety of ways, draw picture, write a story, create a concept map, etc. I don't care HOW they summarize as long as they ARE summarizing. We started out okay, but now I can't hardly get any of my students to complete their notebooks! I grade them every two weeks and it's rapidly becoming a waste of time to even collect them. I still like the concept but what can I do differently to encourage them to complete this? I take it as a homework assignment in my grade book. Solution: (Rates are posted for this solution!) I use an interactive notebook often in Language Arts. I have found that the key to student completion and interaction is to make it interesting. Often I have students create Frayer model out of their vocabulary words. Those models are created on index cards and decorated. The cards are put in Ziploc bags and stapled into the IN. Students pull them out to study. They have created flashcards, AND they have a way to keep up with them. Recently, we created a monopoly game with commas-that was a lot of work, but the students loved it. The IN was truly interactive after that activity. I don't use it for a lot of free writing as I use a journal for that. Double entry journals area great activity for IN's as are things like body biographies and open-minded portraits, and KWL charts. I realize that these are all Language Arts activities, but IN's are great for all content areas. For example, a unit on plate boundaries can include sketches of volcanoes and effects of earthquakes. Weather units can includes sketches of weather map with front boundaries, pictures of tornados, earthquakes, etc. I believe that the idea is to give the information on the right side and have the students show their understanding on the left side. Make them interact with the content that you've delivered. Encourage them to make real world connections on the left side. A well developed IN is a great study resource. Of course, a grading rubric should always be our guide for grading. I teach gifted students, so the IN is perfect for them, but it can easily be adapted for all levels of learners.