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 journal for my Kindergartners in their guided reading groups. I only currently do interactive journals with my high readers, who can complete the work independently. Obviously, Kindergarten is very different from high school, but it is such a effective learning tool! To keep my students engaged in doing their interactive journals is to "spice" it up. I truly make it interactive. My students use sticky notes to answer questions, use glitter pens, cut and glue materials in their books, they also take pictures with the class ipad of different work they are working on and print it out and glue it in their book. I also allow my students to check their classmates' journals and they can give them a skittle, sticker, high five, etc. if they completed them correctly.