Number Forms

One of our first entries in our Interactive Notebook was Number Forms. We made a simple foldable for this review entry. I had already taught number forms, and we were doing this entry as a review before the test. I am glad I did it as a review, because, as the students were working on this entry, I could really see that a number of students had been struggling with word form and expanded form. Doing this activity helped them, and it inspired me to add number words to our spelling list for the next week, as many of students had trouble with spelling for word form.

Inside the Teacher Foldable

These pictures are of the teacher input page. We all did the same number in our foldable. I tried to choose a number that had some difficult words to spell. For example, I chose "forty-two thousand", because many students had been spelling "forty" with a "u," and many students had been spelling "thousand" incorrectly.

Outside the Teacher Foldable

Here are some pictures of the student foldables and reflection page. I really love reading the students' reflections, because that is how I can truly tell if they have internalized the lesson. Every time we add an entry, I help them out by giving them ideas of what I would like to see in their reflections. We are collaboratively making a list of "good reflection ideas." So far on the list are extra examples, real-world word problems, cartoons, poems, summaries, and questions. I am constantly on the look-out for new ideas of ways they can share what they have learned in their reflections.

 

What is an Interactive Notebook?

I have to admit that I have not read any books, nor done any real research into Interactive Notebooks. After joining Pinterest, and finding myself inspired by so many of other teachers' Pins, I started to notice a theme among a number of Pins I had repinned, and that was Interactive Notebooking. I started to follow a few blogs of teachers who do them, and I downloaded a few freebies on TeachersPayTeachers (TpT). That's all the research I have done. Anyway, I have started my own in my classroom, and though I've done no real research, I will attempt to answer the question, "What is an Interactive Notebook?" based on what I have decided to do with my own.

Our Interactive Notebooks are a 3-ring binder with tabs for Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies, and ELD. About once to three times a week, I will have students add an entry to their notebooks. The format is very specific. All of the right side pages (odd-numbered) are for Teacher Input - this is where I give them notes, draw diagrams, have them glue in handouts, or make a foldable with them. In my class, I will use this for the Input of a brand new big idea/concept or as a review of a big idea/concept. All of the left side pages (even-numbered) are for Students Input - this is where students write in their own words what they think they will learn, what they already know, what they have learned, proof of what they have learned, and a personal and creative reflection on the lesson. This side (the left side) is why I really wanted to start doing the notebooks. It allows for so much metacognition and for students to be writing a lot (especially in the content areas). In addition to the entries, students keep an updated Table of Contents at the front of each tab, and are constantly aware of the notebook rubric, which I will be using to grade their entries and the entire notebook. The whole notebook thus serves as a place for notes to use as a reference in class and for studying. It also serves as a platform for students to reflect on their own learning and interact with it creatively. It also serves as an ongoing portfolio of student work, learning, and thought. It also serves as a journal of student writing. I love that it does so much! That is why I am doing it! I hope this makes sense. Send me a comment or question if you have one!!

Prepositions and Interactive Notebooking

I have been using Easy Grammar for two years now. I mainly like the structure of the curriculum as it introduces prepositions first in order to aide students into simplifying sentences by removing prepositional phrases. When kids can do this, it leaves the simplified sentence easier to dissect in order to go into depth with studying nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc. So, I have been teaching prepositions for the past couple weeks.

I also have ventured into trying to create interactive notebooks this year for students to have 1) a notebook they can reference throughout the year, 2) a portfolio to show parents and administrators of student work, and 3) a way for students to be reflecting and writing more about their own thinking and learning. So, with a lot of inspiration from other teacher blogs I follow, some freebies I found on TeachersPayTeachers.com, and Pinterest, I created a plan to structure our Interactive Journals. I still have a lot to develop, but I am really proud of the first entry we did on Prepositions, and I really think the kids enjoyed it and got a lot out of it. Now, I know that the entries are supposed to be for input, but my first entries will be review lessons instead if input lessons. I am actually interested to compare them later with input lessons. Anyway, I will post some pictures of the Prepositions entry in our Interactive Journal under the tab Language Arts (we made tabs in a binder for Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies, and ELD). I will also do another blog entry later where I discuss more about what an Interactive Notebook is and how I have set mine up.