How I make interactive notebooks work in my classroom

Interactive notebooks can be the best or the worst thing that happen to your classroom. They can be the best thing because kids become engaged in the learning, it’s a hands-on experience with the material and it adds a little fun to the reading work. 

It can be the worst thing that happens to your classroom if there is zero classroom management surrounding it, no set procedures or if kids are not taking the work seriously. 

How I’ve Managed to Make Interactive Notebooks Work in my Classroom 
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I remember the first time I learned about Interactive Notebooks, I was so intrigued and excited to try them in my classroom! Then I had students complete them without any real explicit instruction and it  was mayhem. I had trash everywhere, materials all over the place and some kids were completed while others had only just colored, cut and pasted, not completing any actual academic work.

​When I gave the kids the pages and materials, I wasn't able to get their attention back. I almost refused to move forward with interactive notebooks after that first week, but I had an entire unit prepared and INB was an integral part of it. So I quickly reassessed and figured out a few different ways to make this fun way of learning work in my classroom. 

Procedure: Whenever we start using an interactive notebook in my classroom, depending on the content (mine are always for reading now because I teach Humanities), I tell students there is a checklist to complete before they begin to color, cut and paste. Every single interactive notebook I’ve made for my students always includes steps to completion. It's NEVER a cut, color and paste first then do the work. 

Before I let the class go on their own with this, I will work alongside them to complete each step for the first couple or few pages. I tend to make the first few pages fairly simple (as far as how much to cut and paste)  so the class can get into a routine of how it should work.

We discuss the questions together (and there will be no scissors, crayons or glue on anyone's table yet), I will complete the academic work in the INB page with them and THEN I will color, cut and paste. All of this is projected on a document camera for students to follow along. As soon as a student is not following along, I stop, redirect, wait and then continue. This does not take long because, like I said, the first few pages of the INB are simple. This is part of teaching them the routine for how to get INB done. Once they get the hang of it, they get used to the routine. 

Homework: Sometimes the easiest thing to do is to assign the notebook pages as homework. For the first class novel this school year, my students annotated the text through notes. We are doing a second novel now and I am assigning students to complete the interactive notebook pages as homework. The directions are stated as to what they should do first, second and third, but I am not at their house to monitor that. As long as they come to school with their homework fully completed, I’m happy. 

Book Clubs: In the past, I’ve run Book Clubs in my classroom. There are 4-5 groups discussing the same book and each student in the group has a job to ensure the conversation flows and the group hits all of the talking points. Well because each group will finish at a different time, I assign an interactive notebook sheet to work on after they meet with their groups. That way, everyone has something to do during Book Club time, no matter how long each conversation lasts. For those who do not finish their INB page by the end of class, it is homework that night. 

If you want to try Interactive Notebooks in your classroom, check out some that I created for my students! 

The Watsons go to Birmingham by Christopher Paul Curtis 
Wonder by RJ Palacio
Loser by Jerry Spinelli
Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli
... and more!