Enter the Interactive Student Notebook.
The idea of a student notebook is not entirely a new concept, though it does seem to be gaining a renewed sense of popularity. Essentially an Interactive Student Notebook (ISN) is a composition notebook where the students keep their notes and self practice work all in one place. However, a good ISN is so much more than that. Ideally notes are taken in ways that will help students remember the concepts; ideas are grouped on pages using foldables and color. Examples are specifically chosen to represent the main ideas of the concepts and student work included is purposefully selected.
Much of my ISN is based on Sarah Rubin's Interactive Notebooks. She is a genius when it comes to explaining how notebooking works and how she started. I HIGHLY recommend you go read her blog posts to help you get started.
(Sarah Rubin's Everybody is a Genius Blog)
Now for my two cents. While I loved Sarah's set up, I was struggling to find a way to keep myself organized and tie in a way to help absent students catch up. Thus, the ISN Bucket was born.
The ISN Bucket is the organizational system behind my ISN. Each hanging file folder corresponds to one set of ISN pages. Within each folder are the copies or foldables used on that page. Each tab is also color coded to show which groups of pages are from the same chapter or unit. The very first file holds my ISN as an example for students who were absent. The last three files contain extra blank paper, graph paper, and vocabulary boxes similar to the ones found here. I added a file to the box as we added pages to our ISN's last year but this year I will have my ISN pages ready to go! (Not that I won't do some tweaking and editing but it will be a nice place to start!)
I should add that this bucket sits out on a counter in my classroom and students have free access to its contents. When students return from being absent, and want to know what they missed, I just point to the bucket and they know what to do!
Are you using an Interactive Student Notebook? What else do you do to make your life and students lives more organized?
