Why Use Interactive Notebooks?

I am sure you have all heard of an interactive notebook at one time or another (if you haven't please do not hesitate to ask!), and perhaps you even considered using them in your classroom but are still unsure and nervous. I am here to give you five reasons why I love using interactive notebooks in my class.

1. It is a mini textbook
This is exactly what I tell my students at the beginning of the year, that their notebooks are going to be their very own mini textbooks full of all of the important concepts from the year. We actually rarely use the textbook in class so this makes sense to them. You are essentially making a growing list of content they are learning throughout the year. This is beneficial for a number of reasons. One is that if the parents ask what their child is learning, or would like to see the notes, everything is right there for them to see. Secondly, the best is when a student is answering a question and it involves a concept that was previously covered, of course they ask me first, in which I respond to them to take their handy-dandy notebooks out. They giggle slightly, and say "oh yeah", as if they forgot they had it! By the end of the year, they are pros at referencing back to find what they are looking for. You also do not have to worry about students cleaning out their binders and throwing away "old" notes, they will always have them.

2. Not just cutting and gluing

Interactive notebooks are so much more than taking your worksheet of class notes and just gluing it into the notebook. It is about creating graphic organizers to help the kids take notes, understand the material, group their thoughts, make connections and help retain the content. With foldable notes, there is a spot for all of the important information. I am not saying all notes that go into the notebook are amazing foldable notes, but there is some thought behind what you want in the notes (this is no harder than creating the powerpoint or presentation you were going to use to present the information anyways), the core concepts you want the students to get out of the lesson. This has actually made me a better teacher, allowing me to focus in on the key ideas. Almost all of my students speak Spanish at home, and a large percentage of them are ELL students. Therefore the use of graphic organizers is a huge benefit to these students! As for their classwork/student output page, I will honestly say a worksheet sometimes ends up on this page. It is used for them to reference back to, to recall the steps they took to solve certain problems. Other times it is an activity that was done to show understanding of material. Interactive notebooks also make for great study tools!
3. Keep kids interested

Although you did a hands-on activity to allow the students to conceptualize the material, now you need a way to write it down, in which you are hoping the class does not get fussy because it is "note taking time". With interactive notebooks, students are still being engaged with interesting note taking. I utilize this format often of doing a discovery activity, then fill out notes afterwards to recap what was learned and to spark discussion about what was learned. The two to three minutes I allot my students to cut out their notes allows for a break in the class, which they need, and I am sure you won't mind the breather either. Mind you, we have 80 minute classes every day, so a little break to allow for some quick cutting of their notes will not kill us. Additionally, allowing students to highlight, color, and underline important key concepts and words helps them retain the information and makes it easier for them to reference back at a later date.

4.Keeps everything organized and neat, no lost notes!

There is a home for everything! I don’t know about you, but there are few things that drive me more crazy than lost notes that were given/taken the day before. There are just so many papers being shoved into that ONE binder, no wonder they cannot find anything! There is now no excuse for students to not have their notes, ready to be used. Honestly though, I asked the other content teachers how they put up with the students loosing their notes all the time, and they didn’t really have a good answer, just that they often give out extra copies. Of course (selfishly) in my head I thought, well, fortunately for me I don’t have that problem anymore. I have gotten many teachers on board with interactive notebooks, for this exact reason!

5. Ownership

Students care more about something they have created verse just a random worksheet they probably barely filled out. I have had students get upset if I dare move on too quickly because they want ALL of the notes. This could also be because they know there is a notebook quiz at the end of the marking period, but it is still nice they care. Allowing an opportunity for students to add some color perhaps when finished early is never a bad thing, it makes it theirs.

I hope some, if not all, of these reasons have given you an outlook as to why you should at least give interactive notebooks a chance in your classroom.