Interactive Notebook Tips and Tricks

hi i'm jamie from not some would-be teacher and i'm really excited to put together this video for you with tips for using interactive notebooks all right this is a math interactive notebook and it has activities in it that are based on the skills and standards that my students were learning okay and there's a few different reasons that i choose to use interactive notebooks for one thing interactive notebook activities are far more engaging than a worksheet students enjoy doing them they get really excited to create this special book of everything that they're learning in your class also it really helps those kinesthetic learners and just in general kids tend to need to move a little bit more and they learn more that way and so the cutting and the gluing it really engages those kinesthetic learners a lot and finally it does create a nice resource that students can go back to over and over again if they need to reviews go they've forgotten a strategy now it's right here they're more than just notes are quantities so teacher earned students can see examples and exactly how they solved different problems or different strategies that they use they're not just notes there an actual output that the student has produced okay now I want to give you a lots of different tips and ideas to make interactive notebooks work for you and your students first of all let's just talk about getting started if you're brand new to interactive notebooks let me just give you a little a little rundown of what you might need first of all materials every student is going to need a notebook Annalee prefer the composition books because they think that they stay together better and last the entire year and I want my students math notebook to last the entire year I only get them one math notebook however spiral notebooks will work just fine that's what you have they are less expensive I tend to think sometimes the spirals come apart or they get really stuck together if the kids have multiple spirals in their desk but they'll do the job so as long as the student has a notebook that's what's important now I get asked often about hey I'm starting interactive notebooks what subjects should I use them in my recommendation is if you are new to interactive notebooks only choose one subject up first if you choose to implement them in math reading language science and social studies you will be overwhelmed and I think it takes away a little bit of the fun for your students and during every single subject area they're home to put together interactive notebook activity my favorite subjects use interactive notebooks in our math I I even have a math resource in my store because I love using in my math I also have used them in science and social studies because I think that the curriculum can be a little dry and it can be easy to forget so I think the activities are lots of fun and I purchased them from different sellers on TPT because I do not have a resource for science and social studies and so I would look for different resources based on the units that I was teaching those are my favorite subjects to use them for language like your grammar that could also be a good one because there's a lot of skills you're giving them and it really helps they can go back and look up those words because after a while plural possessive it all sounds the same and it's nice if they have that resource to go back to hey I have tried using them in reading I wasn't very successful with it we would really forget to use and we should have a time but if that's the area in your classroom will you need to add that extra engagement give them something more than the curriculum then it might be the right choice for you just choose one to get started that's my recommendation and even if you've been doing this for a while you probably only want to do it maybe two different subject yes just so that it it is new and fresh for the students I also get asked when in the world dear students complete interactive notebook activities I use math the most and my students predominantly do their interactive notebook activities during our Center rotations more specifically my students do it during the meet the teacher rotation not every day you don't have to have them do an interactive notebook activity every day and in fact that sounds overwhelming meet me when students do it once or twice a week during math so I do it during the meet the teacher station so that my students are sitting right in front of me and I can easily see the answers underneath their flaps so I can right away get an idea as to whether or not they understand the skill or a standard okay it could also be an actual Center during your math rotations maybe you have an interactive notebook Center if you do that you'll need to spend some time teaching students how to do interactive notebooks and you'll probably want to have samples available to them if they're gonna be doing them independently without you there the beginning of the year you might want to do them together and teach them how they're done but then it could turn into a center for sure other options are doing them whole group I would do my things in social studies whole group because we didn't really have centers during my science social studies block and so we could do them whole group it might be helpful helpful to teach in our inter note booking a small group so that you can make sure everyone understands but really once you have time your expectations it can be a whole group activity you may want to kind of walk by your desks or your tables and have students lift up just one of the flats just so that you can see that students are on the right page you may even have students work in groups or partners and check each other's work but in our tour notebooks can be done small group or whole group it can also be morning work and you're looking for something meaningful a start your day with you could have interactive notes but activities that you morning work a lot of people ask well how do you assess your interactive notebooks and there's a couple different answers first of all you don't have to assess your interactive notebooks it can literally just be a place where your students are practicing and recording their strategies in this case you will want to make sure that you've gone over the answers so that what they have recorded in their notebook is accurate now I use them during a small group and so I get an informal assessment and it's really easy because they're sitting right there at the table and I can see them and they just have a list of flat and I can real quick check and see if their answers are correct if their answers are correct I can say check that student understands this skill and then they know that maybe we need to move on it's a good way for me to gauge if we need another day of the skill or not so that's another way you can assess I do have a free interactive notebook tools resource which I will link in the description of this video and in that resource there are rubrics so if you would like a more formal assessment you could use a rubric which will give points for both neatness and completeness as well as accuracy so that's another option and you can mix it up maybe sometimes it's an informal and sometimes it's formal what I love about the informal is I don't have to collect these notebooks so I don't have piles notebooks sitting on my desk or to take home so with a formal assessment you all have to have a way that you can collect their notebooks but even if they do it during a Center and then when they come to meet the teacher can they real quick have their notebook open so that you can very quickly check their answers that's another possibility okay so lots of ways that you can assess and you don't have to make it a formal assessment all right let's talk about saving time because the number one complaint I hear from teachers who either haven't tried in our inter notebooks yet and it's just a fear or those who've tried it but needed some extra tips is that it takes too my students to cut and glue I don't have that kind of time so let me share some time-saving strategies for you because I had a very condensed shortened day and I was able to use a track notebook so it is possible but there are ways to make interactive notebooks take forever and you don't want to do that because no you don't talk about alright first tip and probably the most important tip is you need to choose activities wisely just because it says an interact and that it's an error actually nobody achieve it doesn't mean it's a quality nomic activity it might be one that will take your kids forever to cut look for activities that have nice straight lines straight cuts don't want activities with super tiny pieces or anything round to cut out that takes too long for our students so things are nice and straight you'll also notice that these activities are all similar even though they're asking introduce different things once my team my students learn how to put this activity in their notebook they can easily put this one in without any instruction from me okay so the activities are similar and straight easy cuts and that's important also you'll notice although I have this these cute little kids and a lot of the titles there aren't clipart pieces but the kids are just asked to cut out for no particular reason except for to look cute and I have seen no book activities like that before where there's just a really cute kid and I love clipart but if they're just cutting it out to stick it in their notebook just because it's cute that is going to take too much time and anything that this is not academic can I put my directional books which means that my students don't do a lot of coloring in their notebooks unless it is something that is going to help them academically they don't color not just color the kids a kid so I don't even need crayons markers and colored pencils to me by our notebooks work well my students get to color their cover on the first day of school and past that the no coloring in here so keep that mutt that will help save you time - all right so - those activities wisely look for ones that are predominantly straight cuts and where the activities are sort of similar so you're not having to waste a lot of class time teaching how we put back tippity in their notebook at the beginning of the year you might have to but then they've done a few activities and they can see exactly how it works all right my next tip is that you need to teach kids how to cut and this might sound crazy to you but you need to even if you're teaching older kids I taught third grade and they spent a significant amount of time teaching my students how they should be cutting all right first of all this is how a student will cut if you don't teach them they will just cut out each piece one by one just cutting around each piece this takes too long but it's just they're natural why for most students it's just natural how they see it oh I have six boxes to cut out I cut one box then I cannot say box what we need to teach students to do is instead cut all the way around the border so that I have one piece this leads to less trash - I've just one piece then I make the cut right down the middle and then I can quick cut each piece apart so teach them that I told my kids we cut like third graders and third graders cut all the edges off first and that's how we always cut or interact with notebook activities and instead of cutting out each box we start by cutting all around the border okay and that makes it so much faster hmm sounds crazy but teach them how to cut after you've explained the expectations for how they'll cut their activities it's time to start racing students just tend to be competitive and so use that to your advantage I tell my students that they are younger they have much more energy than poor old missus years and therefore they should be able to cut these activities much quicker than I have they still have to cut the meat Lee because they're gonna go in our fairies but even kind of neatly they should be able to cut faster than me of course this gets them pumped up they need to beat me okay so we take our activity we've all got our scissors and we say go as we raced as you can compete the cutting fastest while still being very neat I'll do this several times during beginning of year because it helps to get them used to anytime they see it in our economic activity they're expected to cut at that speed even if they're not racing with me so race that maybe you came in set timers and see how fast you can get at cutting these activities out they will laugh and have a fun time and I think that's an extra bonus from these races okay all right now we've talked on how to cut we taught them how to cut fast another tip to save some time is loose sponges all right here's the glue sticks and how they worked worked for me there's a little so the kids will like glue two beads of paper on and the glue sticks gone even if when I teach I'm like only a little bit in the edges wherever there's just hardly any glue in those glue sticks right then on top of that they're on the table and they just roll right off then the kids on the floor searching for the glue stir then the lid is missing you have to find the lid mrs. Sears this is all wasting time okay so I'll tell me that when you glue stuff in with a glue stick it tends to fall out big they spent all of this time one day putting a notebook activity together and the next day and pulls out of the notebook okay so here's my solution although we sometimes use glue sticks especially if we're working on notebooks whole group what I like to do is use glue sponges they're super easy to put together you'll need some type of plastic container like this one in this is just a gladware container that you can find at the grocery store at Walmart you can also find things like this at the dollar store inside of this container you'll want to put in kitchen sponge just your very basic cheap bunch you know they come in packages of like six and they're all different colors just stick one inside of this container it's a new sponge please and you don't want to wet it if you feel it they already sort of feel a little moist right just out of a package you don't need to wet it you just stick it in this container once but take a small bottle of Elmer's glue Elmer's is the best but you just need a small bottle this bottle here is four ounces it's gonna be just fine so we have bigger bottles you can just use half but I take the entire bottle and go ahead and I remove the lid and then just pour the whole bottle on top of this bunch just pour it on top of the sponge okay then put the lid securely on the container and keep it flat you don't want to do this because then all the glue will seep to the bottom just keep it flat overnight the glue will seep into the sponge creating a glue ease puckish now when students go to glue activities into their notebooks all that you have to do is take the piece of paper and push it down on the sponge and then stick it in their notebook it really is faster there's no glue sticks rolling around no students having to get up to go find a new glue stick because there's ran out no lids missing okay and it is a lot less expensive so I just use this little 4-ounce glue and I write around every now and again a kill say it's not really not sticky if I just flip the sponge its sticky all over again and you can keep flipping for quite some time every now and again I have to add some extra guru glue around Christmas okay not time add a lecture if it's not that sticky and it's sticky get it lasts the whole you I do not replace these I don't do anything special except keep the lid on tight and keep them stored flat on my shelf top of it is being cheaper and faster they also stick better OMERS glue works a lot better than the glue stick it just does but we need to give them glue bottles like this it's I mean you teach them to do dots but it seeps out from the paper and then they shut their notebook in the notebook shut like glue shy you don't want that so you get the benefit of the OMERS liquid glue but make it easier and less messy it really is less messy so your if you're still not trying to make glue and sponges even if you just google it you'll find instructions out there they are awesome since I mostly do my yarn up once turns vulgar I only have about three or four of these and I just spread them out along the table and students share if you're gonna do interactive notebooks whole group or want to make these for whole group every student does not keep one I would say have one maybe sitting in the middle of every four desks so students can share okay that's it they work wonders so some time-saving tips of course you need to pick your activities very carefully because if you have an activity that's hard to cut it will always take your students a long time to complete you also want to make sure that it's an activity that has your students computing and working not just writing notes you want to teach your students how to cut around all of the edges instead of just cutting each individual piece out do some races to get them used to cutting quickly and then adding some glue sponges to make it quicker to glue things on all right couple extra tips but I wanted to give when I first start out on notebooks at the beginning of the year the first thing we do is I give them a cover and if you go to that tools free resource sprint for notebooks you'll see that there are some covers in there for all different subjects and notebooks so you'll want to grab a cover and give each student one and on the first day I have them glue it to their notebook and color it pretty I mean this is their inner HP notebook and they're gonna have a whole year and you want them to be take some hide in it because then they'll do better work inside after that I have my students go page by page with a number so down here in the bottom right corner and a page one now will flip the page we don't remember in my class this side here we actually leave that side blank mostly because I think some of these activities get a little bit heavy I'm putting them on both sides made it seem like it might end up tearing the sheet out I only give them one notebook for the year and we've been fine now I don't do an activity every day so if you're an average students do a lot of activities they might need a new notebook halfway through the year but we have your students go through many pages just numbering the bottom right before they even go any activities this will save time later - hey-oh I would have my kids get through at least 30 just numbering them then they add a table of contents this table of contents again is included in those free tools that I have leaked you don't have to print out a sheet if you don't want to you can always have your kids write table contents and make lines but having a table of contents I think is really important they only have me students write the page number and the name of the activity and the name comes directly from they actually committee itself named quadrilateral then they might just title it quadrilateral but this helps me students to use it as a resource all year so maybe we're reviewing for testing in the spring and they're like I haven't forgotten what a question lateral is they can easily find it in their table of contents and go back to that activity to review without I'm gonna flip through a hundred different pages I also found that when I started teaching text features during my reading my informational text unit my students already knew how to use a table of contents we didn't need to go through that very much because they've been using it all year it's a great way to teach students to stay organized so I do recommend a table of contents another thing you might want to do is add an envelope manila envelope to the front or back cover of your notebooks especially if you plan to have students cut at a different time than they'll be gluing perhaps you want them to cut during morning work and they're not gonna put together until they meet with you then the envelope will be a good place to stick those small pieces okay another thing I get asked about is what if your students are absently missed the notebook activity in my class when you're absent I pass out beepers and I pass one out for every desk and so if you sit next to someone who's absent you just keep their papers in a pile and stick them in their desk so same with a our notebook activity it would be there for them when they got back if they don't know how to put it into their notebook they can ask a friend and the friend can show them their sample but I do have any students just work on it when they finish something else early during a snack break during morning work I don't have them take it home with them because things don't come back when they go home so I don't want to lose the entire notebook it might take them a week before they complete completed the whole activity but as long as they've done the practice and they have the resource to look back on that's okay with me sometimes won't happen as a kid meets with me in small group and I can see he has an activity that hasn't been cut that's sort of just sticking out of his notebook and he might finish the activity early that we're doing that day and I can see it like this he might finish the activity were doing that day in order be done I'll say start working on the one you missed and so that's another time that they might get caught up but it's okay if it's not the exact same order as their classmates and they sell the table of contents to help them alright as I mentioned I do have math interactive notebooks in my store I made them they are perfect for third grade but would work well for second and fourth you just might have to add a couple activities fair there the other benefit for third grade is that there's ways to differentiate a lot of times you can have the same skill but with different numbers by using the different the same activity and I've included it with different numbers so I have this bundle here it has ten different notebooks in it to cover almost every skill that I taught my students as well as a couple others all right I'm gonna put a link to this resource in the video description so that you can check it out all of the activities that I provide in my notebook bundle are simple to cut and don't have a lot of fluff to um so that you can be sure that they won't take too long for your students to create alright I hope this video is giving you a lot of tips to make interactive notebooks easier for you to use in your classroom thank you

Channel: Not So Wimpy Teacher

Views: 8,149

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Id: dYcDcwZkCkw

Length: 24min 31sec (1471 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 21 2018