Before I started using interactive notebooks, I got by, but barely. I'd make multiple copies of every handout for students who were constantly losing theirs. Students would take notes sometimes, and sometimes they wouldn't. All of my grades focused on the finished products, never on the process. If I wanted students to write, I had to collect every page that they wrote, and I inevitably had a stack of unread notebook pages on my desk at the end of every day. Classes were discussion all day, every day, with me as the main source of energy for that discussion.
Interactive notebooks help students to organize and synthesize information with creative, interactive, and easily personalized activities. Colored paper makes the ISN's more colorful. White paper is too plain and doesn't really give much room for creativity. The kids have fun choosing colors for their books. Containers will be used to store paper, markers, glue, tape, crayons, markers, etc. Folders will be used to store unfinished student work that wasn't able to be glued yet into their books at that time. They can grab their folder the next day and finish their products/activities. Wire trays will be used to hand in work to be checked by me before it is entered into the ISN's. Markers, pens, highlighters, all writing utensils will be used by the students so that they can write in color. Colors are always a great way to give kids a chance to be creative and to have fun with the different colors instead of using the traditional pencil/pen. In order to design, you need a variety of colors. This makes it fun for my kids because every single student has their own picture in their mind that is transferred into their ISN's.
About my class
Before I started using interactive notebooks, I got by, but barely. I'd make multiple copies of every handout for students who were constantly losing theirs. Students would take notes sometimes, and sometimes they wouldn't. All of my grades focused on the finished products, never on the process. If I wanted students to write, I had to collect every page that they wrote, and I inevitably had a stack of unread notebook pages on my desk at the end of every day. Classes were discussion all day, every day, with me as the main source of energy for that discussion.
Interactive notebooks help students to organize and synthesize information with creative, interactive, and easily personalized activities. Colored paper makes the ISN's more colorful. White paper is too plain and doesn't really give much room for creativity. The kids have fun choosing colors for their books. Containers will be used to store paper, markers, glue, tape, crayons, markers, etc. Folders will be used to store unfinished student work that wasn't able to be glued yet into their books at that time. They can grab their folder the next day and finish their products/activities. Wire trays will be used to hand in work to be checked by me before it is entered into the ISN's. Markers, pens, highlighters, all writing utensils will be used by the students so that they can write in color. Colors are always a great way to give kids a chance to be creative and to have fun with the different colors instead of using the traditional pencil/pen. In order to design, you need a variety of colors. This makes it fun for my kids because every single student has their own picture in their mind that is transferred into their ISN's.
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