Two snow days = two blog posts IN THE SAME WEEK!!
A few weeks ago, I hosted a workshop on using Interactive Student Notebooks in ELA classrooms. Since I had all my info and pictures gathered up for this, I thought I’d put them all together in a video for the blog.
If you have any questions about something you saw (or didn’t see and was hoping to) please feel free to ask!
Read some other blog posts about ISNs here and here and here.
If you’d like to purchase any of the organizers (and many others not featured!) they are for sale in my Teachers Pay Teachers store.
The Interactive Notebook: Literary Elements Collection
The Interactive Notebook: Informational Text Collection
The Interactive Notebook: Reading Comprehension Collection
Or, buy them all together and save a bundle!! The HUGE Bundle available here!
Happy Teaching!!
**UPDATE**
I’ve had some readers ask for a copy of the rubric that I use to grade the ISNs. Here is Post-It template that I use:
Do you use ISNs for other facets of ELA such as Writing, Grammar and Vocabulary? I am trying to plan for next year and it seems like I have tried every combination of binders, spirals and composition notebooks.
Hi! We do use a Writer's NB for writing. Students do glue some info into these (it's not always interactive, though… It's often just notes or anchor posters) but they are primarily used for drafting our writing. I don't formally teach grammar (though our reading series does offer a formal teaching component), rather I do Kelly Gallagher's "Sentence of the Week" (if you google this you should find lots of info!!). I find this works SOOO much better than when my grammar instruction was more skill and drill. We put the Sentence of the Week stuff in the back of Writer's NB (when the writing part and the grammar part meet in the middle, it's time for a new notebook! I always order two notebooks per kid because of this!) As for vocab, this is taught through the stories we read, so we do put organizers in our ISNs for vocab. So, each day, kids are bringing two composition books to ELA. Hope that helps! Thanks for reading!!
Thank you for posting this video; I found it to be very helpful. I'll be doing ISNs with my 8th graders this upcoming school year. What do you do or have the students do when/if they lose their ISN?
Hi Davita! I can honestly say that I've never had a student lose their ISN!! First of all, they rarely leave my classroom. Students only take them home if they have a test to study for (I don't give homework other than studying). I also don't let students keep them in their desks/lockers. I have four small bookshelves in my room and each one belongs to one of my ELA periods. They notebooks are kept there. I tell students if they lose their notebook, then they will have to come into workroom each day and replace all the lost material!! But, again, it's never happened and fingers crossed, it won't any time soon!!
Hello,
I really like the editable spiral notebook paper in the video. Do you remember where you got it? I would love to incorporate this in my INBs.
Love your notebooks! Do you use one notebook for Literary Elements, Reading Comprehension, and Informational texts? Or do they have a separate notebook for each? Do you use all of these at one time? I love the information and variety of activites/lessons in these notebooks. I just have trouble implementing all of it. Thanks!
Love your notebooks! Do you use one notebook for Literary Elements, Reading Comprehension, and Informational texts? Or do they have a separate notebook for each? Do you use all of these at one time? I love the information and variety of activites/lessons in these notebooks. I just have trouble implementing all of it. Thanks!
Yup, just one notebook 🙂
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I found the videos you posted very informative and helpful. I see that you use one notebook for Literary Elements, Reading Comprehension and Informational Text. My question is similar to the question above, do you work through them individually in the notebook (all of Literary Element, then all of Reading Comprehension) or do you pick and choose from each through the year? Thanks again for sharing your expertise.
Hi! I pick and choose from each throughout the year. I'm always mixing up literature and nonfiction, and of course, reading comprehension is always a goal we have all year long.
Jenna
I am getting ready to read Tuck Everlasting. Which of your bundles includes the pages you used for it in your video?
Hi there! I really love your Reading ISN and plan to incorporate it this school year. At my new school, students have one spiral notebook and one composition book. I plan to use the comp book for the Reading ISN, but I'd like to do some list writing as well and am thinking that the students will glue these into the back of the Reading ISN and then use their spiral notebooks to write, do warm ups, etc. Thoughts?
You've mentioned that you test the students on information presented in the ISN. Can you elaborate on what your tests look like/include?
Also – minus the lessons where you are introducing the notes, how do you incorporate these notebooks into your routine activities? Do you consider these examples that students can utilize as they approach different texts?