My First Year Using Interactive Notebooks

I have wanted to use interactive notebooks for a long time. The reason why I wanted to use them is because I wanted my students to be able to learn and develop their understanding by using these notebooks. I have read multiple different guides about how use a science notebook in a science class. With all of this information, I decided to create my own interactive notebooks for my biology classes this year. It has been a blast using notebooks. My students are really organized and enjoy making their notes come to life using the interactive notebooks.

I teach students who need some extra help with organization. Having the science notebook helps them keep track of the information all in one place. This is one of the reasons why I love interactive notebooks. One tip I have for having students create their own notebook is to make sure they paste the papers into the notebook and write the assignment on their table of contents. Some of my students skipped this step in the beginning. If you don't check to make sure they are following the rules, your students will not develop this habit.

One thing my students did not enjoy was the cutting and pasting all of the paper into their notebooks. Some students who enjoyed the process really took their time to make their notebook look neat and presentable. Other students often shoved papers into their notebook and did not take time to glue the papers into the notebook properly. I found some great interactive notebook resources that did not require cutting and pasting. I used Amy Brown's Interactive Notebook Pages as a way for my students to review the information they learn in class. I use a lot of her materials for my class. If you teach biology, I would recommend her resources for your biology classes. I cut all the assignments before class and the students just pasted them into the notebook after completing them. My student prefer not to cut and paste papers into their notebook.

Grading the notebook is a very important part of making sure students maintain their notebooks. I have a rubric that I use for my students that is very simple and straight forward. I check my students notebooks once every week to make sure they have all of the assignments. If a student's notebook does not receive good score, I all the student to make up the points by completing assignments and make their notebook look neater. Students appreciate this because they have an opportunity to increase their grade and you make sure that the student has everything they need to be successful.