Interactive Student Notebooks Ashley Steed and Sara Ritchie Ralph Chandler Middle School Greenville County School District

What is an ISN? ➢ The Interactive Notebook is meant to be used as a tool to help students to become creative, independent thinkers and writers. ➢ The ISN can be used for class notes and any other activities where students are asked to express or process information. ➢ The ISN is a one-stop-shop for all information that students need for class. ➢ Composition notebooks work best.

Why use the ISN? ➢ Organizes Students ➢ Helps students sequence assignments ➢ Encourages pride in student work ➢ Facilitates cooperative interaction ➢ Appeals to multiple intelligences ➢ Provides opportunities to spiral instruction and facilitates learning ➢ Formative & Summative Assessments

How do you set up an ISN? ➢ Title Page

How do you set up an ISN? ➢ Title Page

How do you set up an ISN? ➢ Table of Contents #DATETITLEPAGE #

How do you set up an ISN? ➢ Table of Contents ➢ Each page after the TOC is numbered: ○Left pages are odd ○Right pages are even

How do you set up an ISN? ➢ Left Side/Output ➢ Student Created ○Writings ○Drawings ○Cartoons ○Songs ○Graphic Organizers ○Reflections ○Venn Diagrams ➢ Right Side/Input ➢ Teacher Given ○Notes ○Graphs ○Texts/Readings ○Book Notes ○Video Notes

ISN in Science ➢ Right Side/Teacher Input ➢ Blue or Black Ink/Pencil ➢ Information given in class ➢ Lecture notes ➢ Lab activities ➢ Video Notes ➢ Summaries ➢ Textbook Notes ➢ Procedures for experiments ➢ Classroom specific information

ISN in Science ➢ Left Side/Student Output ➢ Lots of Color ➢ The brain remembers things in color better ➢ Concept Maps ➢ Drawings ➢ Reflective Writing ➢ Questions ➢ Data and Graphs ➢ Songs ➢ Poems ➢ Data from Experiments ➢ Cartoons

ISN in Science ➢ Left Side/Student Output ➢ Getting students to think about their learning ➢ Reflection: Use guiding prompts: ○What are you curious about? ○What would you like to test? ○What was the main idea? ○What are the important details to remember? ○How does this relate to your life? ○What don’t you understand?

ISN in Science ➢ Graphic Organizers ➢ Notes on right ➢ GO on left ○Venn Diagrams

ISN in Science ➢ Foldables ➢ Organizes Information into chunks

ISN in Science ➢ Writing in science ➢ Have students “write a little bit a lot” -Dinah Zike ➢ Have students write smaller pieces several times a week

ISN in Math ➢ Right Side/Teacher Given ○Notes ○Examples ○Definitions ○Steps for Solving Problems ○Foldables

ISN in Math ➢ Left Side ○Homework ○Foldables ○Writing for Understanding ○Illustrations ○Vocabulary ➢ Students working on homework can easily refer to notes from the day for help

Tips for using an ISN in ELA (a.k.a things that drove me nuts and how I fixed them.) ●What do I do with starters? o Option 1: turn the ISN upside down and backwards to make a starter section o Option 2: use a separate ISN

How do I handle writing? Brainstorming on one page Rough drafts and final drafts are taped in when finished.

But I don’t wanna to lug all those notebooks home! Students are given a handout or use notebook paper. They tape it in after it’s graded.

How do I keep them on the same page? Students start a new one, numbers match mine Make numbering the pages a homework assignment at the beginning of the year. Trust me on this one.

Tips for using an ISN in Social Studies (Treat like Sci.): Color!

Social Studies tips Chunk notes Ex) Instead of writing everything about the Egyptians, have a page set aside for Egyptian government, another page for environment, a different one for contributions, etc.

Takeaways Plan by quarter or semester for new ISN Make a teacher ISN It’s changed our teaching for the better. Do what works for you!

Resources ➢ Interactive Notebooking: ➢ Everybody is a Genius: page.html page.html ➢ Dinah Zike’s Foldables:

Contact Information  Ashley  Sara