Interactive Notebooks Printables

Just in time for tomorrow's TPT sale, I have included two of the items I use in my Interactive Notebooks with my students.  These are a little more dressed up (with chevron) than I used last year, but they are still the same basic idea.  

The first file is a Table of Contents.  I have my students cut these out and paste to the inside cover of the notebook.  All students need to do is cut out along the outer solid line around the Table of Contents and then fold along the dotted line on all pages.  They then just glue each on top of the other only along the dotted line and above (except the back page which is glued the length of the page to the inside cover of the notebook), so it creates a sort of flip book with numbers 1-50 as the top page and 151-200 as the bottom page.  You can see this in use here.

The second file is a Verb Conjugation Foldable that I use when teaching verbs.  Remember, I teach Spanish so I use this with my classes when teaching important verb conjugations.  Students need to cut around the black border of each chart.  Then they need to fold along the dotted line and cut up the black lines of each chart to create flaps.  I have my students write the subject pronouns on the top of each flap, the meanings in English of each verb form using the chart verb on the underside of each flap and the conjugation on the lined paper below each flap.  You can see examples of that here, again without the dressed up chevron that you see in the TPT file.

I don't know how many more printables I'll be introducing because honestly, I don't use that many.  As I've said in all of my other posts regarding Interactive Notebooks, I don't follow the whole left/right method and we really just use our notebooks for notes and a few activities.  So, that being the case, I don't need a whole lot of printables.  This may change as I develop more with the notebooks, but for now, I'm satisfied with these two and maybe one or two others thrown in.  We'll see what this year brings.

Storing My Interactive Notebooks

Just a quick follow up to my last post.  I was able to go to my classroom this week to get a few things done, one of which was making sure I had space to organize my interactive notebook bins.  This is how they're going to be starting out the year, but who knows if it will stay this way.  I plan to spruce it up a bit more, but not until the end of August or when I go back to school in early September.  But, this will give you an idea as to how it will look.   The white bins are where the students will place their notebooks at the end of each class period.  The rectangular trays house glue, scissors, white out, tape and erasers (students are responsible for their own colored pens).  The square containers will be where each group (of four desks) throws away their scraps.  For more information on the jobs this, please visit my previous post describing in detail how I will work the routines with the interactive notebooks.  Oh and please ignore the top of the shelves, I just put that stuff there to keep it somewhere until I come back at the end of the summer to put it away.

Setting up the Classroom for Interactive Notebooks: Routines

Now that you know how last year worked for me, I think it's time to talk about how I'm going to be working this year with the Interactive Notebooks.  Though the start of school is still a month away for me (thankfully, I still have so much to do!), I have been planning out the first couple of weeks of school, namely the Interactive Notebook introduction.

Last year I didn't really discover the concept of Interactive Notebooks until the third marking period (over halfway through the year) but I implemented them right away.  I knew I was treading dangerous ground not really focusing on the routine establishment, but I didn't have a lot of time and wanted to jump right in.  Would I change that?  Not a chance.  Did I learn from it?  You betcha.

This year I am going to work hard on establishing routines.  Last year I used one basket/bucket per set of 4-5 students and those buckets housed colored pens, pencils, erasers, hi lighters, glue, tape, scissors and white out.  I wish I could say that everything stayed as it should and all of my students took good care of the items I spent {lots} of money on, but I can't.  They had very little respect for what was provided to them.  Many of them even used those buckets to throw their scraps of trash in.  There was no organization.  Students just grabbed whatever bucket they could when told - some didn't even grab the whole bucket, just pulled stuff from them.  Needless to say, I was less than pleased.  

That forced me to wise up.  Today I visited one of my favorite haunts, Dollar Tree (lol) and picked up some more baskets for my classroom.  I now am going to have those same buckets from last year in addition to what you see below.   I'm also going to be assigning numbers to each group.  This way if something goes missing, I can easily determine which group had it last.  This really is common sense and I'm slapping myself for not doing that last year, but like I said, I just wanted to jump in and see if it worked.  So, my students will now be assigned a school supply bucket where they will keep the scissors and glue that I provide for them.  This year they are responsible for pens, colored pencils, white out, hi lighters, etc.  They will also be assigned a small bucket for trash.  Each group will be responsible for throwing the small bucket of trash into the larger bucket.  We really only cut a few things per class period (if that), so small buckets will work for us.  Finally, last year I put my students' notebooks in a rolling drawer cart.  I wasn't too pleased with how it worked because the students seemed to never know which drawer was theirs (again, routines).  So this year I'm going to use tubs broken down into class periods.  Each group within the class period is going to have a different pattern of masking tape to put around the binding of their notebooks and then each class will put them into the tubs.  It's basically a combination of this idea and this idea.  Here's what some of my buckets/tubs will look like (I made the labels and used my Xyron machine to stick them on - the trash and supply bins both have group numbers on them for the kids to recognize).

Now that I have the structure, I need to assign roles to the kids.  I don't want a mad dash for the supply area every time we have class.  I'm thinking I want to set up something like this in my classroom but instead of having papers there, I want to put the class' tub there for the notebooks.  I generally do not let my students take them home because they lose them or they leave them in their lockers.  So, unless they need them to finish up an assignment or to study from, they stay in the classroom.  I'm always standing at my door to greet my kids before class starts, so I may even just ask a student to put the bin on the table at the start of class.  Then I need to assign students to be responsible for picking up the notebooks out of the tub (because otherwise I'll have mad chaos like I did last year and I do NOT want to go through that again).  This person will also be responsible for putting them back at the end of class.   I also plan on assigning a student to be responsible for picking up the supply basket, another for picking up any worksheets, another for emptying the trash bin and putting that along with the basket back on the shelf at the end of class.  Of course when they put materials back at the end of the period, I expect that they will organize everything prior to putting it back.  I do not anticipate having groups larger than 4, but I may need to make adjustments once I actually see my rosters for this coming year.  

I do want to note that this post was instrumental in helping me really narrow down the routines.  I knew I needed them, but wasn't quite sure how.  Now I'm excited to start establishing these routines.  

Keep posted as I go over more ideas and and how I plan on implementing Interactive Notebooks this coming year.  As always, comment if you have a question or leave me a comment telling me how you're implementing Interactive Notebooks in your classroom.

The Big Interactive Notebook Post...Finally!

So, it's about time I did a follow up post to my Interactive Notebook post here and here.  I know, I'm a slacker.  

I think it's very important to start off by saying I DO NOT follow the traditional method of using Interactive Notebooks.  I see nothing wrong with the methodology of the left and right pages, I just don't do it.  I teach high school and a lot of the posts and pins I've seen about Interactive Notebooks are for elementary or middle school students.  There are very few Spanish teachers I've come across that use Interactive Notebooks, though I have found a few.  What I have found are tons of great ideas on Pinterest that have led me to some real gems that I'm happy to share with you on my Interactive Notebook Pinterest board.  I am incorporating a lot of Sarah's ideas this year for setting up the notebooks.

Back to mine.  I think it's important to emphasize I do treat these Interactive Notebooks a lot less like Interactive Notebooks than elementary teachers do.  Mine do consist of notes (and lots of them), vocabulary lists, etc.  But, I do use foldables, color coding and a huge reliance on organization (numbering, titling, table of contents, etc.).  Since I rarely use my textbook, this is the next best thing my students have to study from, so it needs to be the same for everyone.  I am not going to say I don't get questioned every day about the correct page to be on, what if my notes aren't as long as yours or mine are too long, etc.  It's really hard to keep them all where they're supposed to be, but I make all attempts necessary to do so because it's that important to me.  What I have found helps them to stay with me is giving them the number of pages they will be working with on a given day.  For example, if we're covering vocabulary, they know what page we'll be starting on, but I also tell them what page we'll be ending on.  I do the same with Grammar notes or practice activities we do.  If they write smaller than me (which most do), they usually don't take up as many pages as I do and that's fine.  I tell them to intentionally leave the pages blank.  If they write larger than me, they have to try to cram it all onto the proper pages.  Again, I write pretty large so this generally is not a problem for me. 

Now, let's talk about the ways I use the notebooks.  As I've said, I put everything in them in terms of vocabulary and grammar notes.  On rare occasions I will have my students complete a homework assignment or in class assignment in them, but for the most part they're really used as a resource rather than for practice (hence the fact that I do not do the left/right notebook method).  Here you can see some pictures of what I mean...

Sometimes I run out of space or have a grammar concept that I know is going to be A LOT of notes (Asking and Answering Questions is a HUGE topic for example).  When that happens, I tend to give the students more of a fill-in-the-blank type notes page and then just have them write examples on the notebook pages and just fill in key components on the worksheet notes.  The worksheet is then taped into the notebook and folded in half so they can close up the notebook and not lose the sheet.  Sometimes I have the students fill in charts that are just taped into the books and other times we complete cloze type activities with songs that help reinforce the information we've covered that day (this page is showing Reflex Your Verby - if you haven't checked this one out, you HAVE to!) 

Though I really don't use textbooks, I am still tied to the vocabulary and grammar structures covered within the book, so my vocabulary lists are incredibly long.  The way I tackle them is to break them into sections and give each section a title (it may be the same as what the book uses or it may be something more updated).  I have the students write the section title in the margin and then the words for that section go next to the title.  Once we've reached the end of the section, they draw a line.  It's simple but helps keep them organized.  We keep the Spanish words/phrases on the left and the English on the right. 

I found it easiest to print out the table of contents over four pages and then have them glue/tape the pages onto the inside cover of the notebook.  I wish I could say all of my students kept up with the table of contents, but some didn't (and their grades reflected that).  But, those that did were able to easily follow and utilize their notebooks.  

I hope this helps you to figure out how to make Interactive Notebooks work for you.  The key thing is to realize that what someone else does may or may not work for you.  It's taken me 14 years of teaching to realize it, but things that work in other classes just may not work in mine, no matter how hard I try or how much better for my students it may be.  You ultimately have to do what will enable your students to learn.  Maintaining our Interactive Notebooks this way has worked for me and my students so far.  That could all change in September, but I'm still going to give it my all because I haven't felt the sense of achievement that I felt with my kids last year in a long time.

Comment and tell me what you do with Interactive Notebooks and how you do it.  If you don't use them yet, can I answer any questions for you?

Revisiting Interactive Notebooks

I haven't been writing in the blog much as I just haven't had the time.  Between a full-time teaching job, a part-time home based business and a rambunctious two year old, I'm surprised I even found time to start the blog, let alone keep up with it.

Anyway, I wanted to take a bit of time to talk about the Interactive Notebooks I mentioned in my last post.  I knew I was onto something when I first starting seeing information all over the net about them, but I never knew they'd turn out to be something my students took seriously and some even cherished.  I've said before that I work in a very blue collar town and, unfortunately, education isn't necessarily the most important thing in many of my students's minds.  I had several students tell me these notebooks not only helped them in my class, but some even told me they liked them so much they plan on using them in the future...even in college!

Here is one of my Spanish II student's notebooks.  She took pride in this and it shows from her cover art.

I haven't worked out all the kinks yet and I know I could do so much more with them, but for the second half of the 2013-2014 school year, I used them and I have noticed a change in retention and an improvement in my students' grades.  I do think the Interactive Notebooks are the reason why.  Let's face it, not every high school student is a good note-taker and not every high school student cares enough to bring materials to class, learn from those materials and then succeed in class and outside of class.  To combat that, I began using the notebooks and I intend to use them next year as well because now my students know where to look for information, notes, vocabulary, etc. (in the Table of Contents).  

I still have one more day left of school this year, but over the summer I'll be working on revamping the notebooks and I'll be sure to post a lot more on this subject.  Let me know, are you using Interactive Notebooks in your classes?  If you are, what are you doing, what do you like, what don't you like?  If you're not, what would you like to know?

Until next time...

Interactive Notebooks

Have you heard of these?  Thanks to Pinterest, I found these gems that have really helped my students.  I just started them in the last couple of weeks, but I've never seen the success with learning AR verbs that I'm seeing from my level one students now.  Usually it takes a while to get the students to catch on, especially with the second and third person forms when subject pronouns are not given.  However, since implementing these notebooks with a foldable AR verbs page last week, I'm seeing a vast improvement on previous years' retention and understanding.  I don't have "better" kids this year, in fact my students this year have proven to be more of a challenge than previous years.  I'm in awe over this right now.  

If you don't know what an interactive notebook is, it's just a composition book that the students use to record notes, practice, vocabulary, etc.  However, it makes great use of color coding things, using foldables, and some (not mine) even focus on left/right side brain functions.  My students are notorious for losing their packets (since I don't really use a textbook) and coming to class with nothing, not even a pen or pencil.  Since last summer, I'd been eyeing up Interactive Notebooks but thought they were too much of an elementary concept.  Finally, a couple of weeks ago it dawned on me that I could use them with my Spanish I classes because what they're really learning is elementary level communication in another language.  So, at the start of the new chapter, we inputted a few important things including chapter vocabulary and a few key verbs (since we didn't start this at the beginning of the year) and then I began my instruction on AR verbs.  When I saw my kids using their AR verbs foldable to complete their work CORRECTLY, I knew I was onto something.  In fact, I wasn't planning on it, but I also introduced it to my Spanish II as well because it's working so well for my Spanish I classes.

Now, let me just say that there are a lot of teachers out there who probably think I should be doing more input based teaching and not necessarily focus on the correct grammar.  I get that and I wish I could.  However, the way my district is set up, this is how we're teaching and this is what works for our kids.  I've tried to sneak in more TPRS based learning and other popular teaching methods, but in a district like mine, it hasn't been working.  So, this is what works for me.  I love activities that get my students to use the language, but when we're just learning how to do something, these Interactive Notebooks are what I've found to be a huge helper.  Do you use Interactive Notebooks?  If you do, please share your experience in the comments section and let me know if you'd like to see more of mine.