Interactive Notebooks


Let me be very clear. Interactive notebooks have, by the field of education full of well-intentioned people, been turned into a notebook of "fru fru" notes. What do I mean by this? I mean that we have turned something very useful to students into a place to glue pieces of paper with blanks on it to a page in a notebook to take notes off the board with and because we glued it there, we deemed our page "interactive". No. Not unless the student is doing something with the other side of the page. Also,  foldables and bright colored cut outs are great, but when they have no educational value, they are what I term "fru fru" - they have no place in the classroom. They are also not just for science. They can be used in ANY subject. I promise. I have proof from my child. She used it in all her classes in 10th grade. Even when she wasn't asked to. It helped her learn. I'm dead serious.

Easy ways to know it's not "fru fru":

-The kids are writing something in the notebook from their brain - NOT ALL IS COPIED FROM THE BOARD

-The kids are USING their notebooks to complete other assignments.

If it's truly "theirs", they will keep up with it much better. ;)

We will continue to discuss interactive notebooking through PD during the year.

Some pictures of interactive notebooks:

A template:
See how it incorporates reading?

You can use foldables and flipables, just make it USEFUL:


Click on the picture for one teacher's break down and a template for Cornell Notes:


This teacher breaks everything down wonderfully:



Examples and Templates for secondary:


Other helpful resources:

Notice I took a screenshot of the drop down menu - there's lots of stuff other than just books on here - for every grade level. 








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