Should you start using interactive notebooks in your class? In theory, interactive notebooks are supposed to welcome creative thinking into the classroom and accommodate the multiple ways of learning can be observed in our classrooms. They’re supposed to help students organize their notes and assignments as well as give students the opportunity to express their own ideas and processes for topics covered in class. But, what is it like in reality? Do interactive notebooks live up to their hype? Should you start using them in your classroom?

In reality, using interactive notebooks is a lot of work. Yes, it sounds simple (just have students write notes, activities, and reflections all in one place, right? Er…not quite.). But, interactive notebooks need to be more than just a glorified way of helping students stay organized. Done correctly, yes, interactive notebooks do have the potential to make learning engaging and fun. However, That’s not as easy as it seems. I tried using interactive notebooks this past year in my Science 10 classes, and I found it difficult to maintain. Below are some pros and cons of what I learned from using interactive notebooks (and some pointers for what I would do for next time). A cheat sheet is available for download at the end of this post.

Interactive Notebooks Pros

Students do take ownership

Students like having their own notebook. For example, whenever I collect notebooks for marking, students always seem to ask for them right back (way before I’m ready to give them back). Perhaps, it is because students need a place to write down their ideas and they prefer their notebook. Perhaps, they like all the work that has gone into personalizing their notebooks. Perhaps, students like to have a record of all the learning that took place over the year. Or, maybe it’s all of it. Whatever the reason, students feel connected and take ownership of their notebooks. And, as a result, students take ownership of their learning too.

Keeps things organized

No longer do students shuffle through a binder in search of their assignment or notes from last class or last month. Everything is easier to find when using interactive notebooks because that’s where everything is supposed to be written down. Also, within their notebooks, students learn to organize their items – separating notes, labs, journal entries, and assignments. It’s certainly a life skill that students need to learn and is done through the use of INBs.

Provides a structure for students and teachers

One simple way of organizing an interactive notebook is having students write notes on the one side of each page and assignments, reflections, labs, etc. on the other side. Inherent in this structure is that there are parts of learning that are student driven and parts that are teacher driven. For example, students need to record class notes in their INBs – notes that come from the teacher. However, students also need to record personal reflections as well as lab activities and assignments in their interactive notebooks – items that come from themselves. This structure is a good reminder to teachers using interactive notebooks that lessons need to be multimodal in order to best reach all learners. If teachers find that students are writing too much on one side of the page, it’s time to change things up and not just stand-and-deliver for a majority of the class.

Filters out less essential parts of a lesson

There was a time where I gave copious notes or handouts upon handouts to students. However, with INBs, I need to be more thoughtful with what I want students to write down. Students can’t possibly write notes for an entire hour. Nor can students staple in handout after handout into their notebooks. When using INBs, teachers need to minimize what the big ideas they want students to focus on. And, I think that’s great.

Interactive Notebook Cons

It shifts your teaching practice

An interactive notebook is supposed to show student process, creativity, reflection, and learning in multimodal ways. Students fill their pages with organizers, labs, assignments, notes, written works, foldables, and probably many other things too in order to show their learning. And, if you haven’t been doing some of this stuff – if you’ve only been giving out handouts and assigning questions from the textbook for you to check for completion next day, then interactive notebooks represents a major shift in how you teach.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with giving out handouts and assigning questions from the textbook. But, using interactive notebooks will mean going beyond just writing answers and notes into the notebook. Using interactive notebooks means finding new and better ways to reach and teach all students – and it will require a shift in how you approach your teaching practice (and a lot of time to adjust too).

Finding good activities for students to do

What are good activities for students to do for an interactive notebook? The short answer is, activities that help students learn better. And, in terms of interactive notebooks, activities that allow students to use and demonstrate their science knowledge creatively and reflectively. One problem with interactive notebooks is the need to find a variety of activities that do just that. Unfortunately, that is no easy task. We need to find activities that are meaningful and not just busy work. Activities that stretch students’ minds instead of just having them check off boxes. Again, teachers may end up using lots of time exploring this aspect – time that is not always freely available.

Finding a fair way to assess notebooks

What does student work in an interactive notebook tell us? How can teachers assess this work and connect it to learning outcomes? Should we be assessing notebooks differently than common assignments? To get the most out of interactive notebooks, we do need to mark them differently than our previous assignments. If not, we run the risk of just doing what we’ve always done – but in a notebook instead of binder. In other words, if creativity, process, and critical thinking is what we are hoping to foster through the use of interactive notebooks, then that is what we need to assess. Again, finding a fair way to assess this in notebooks takes time to develop or, at the very least, to learn. Rubrics and student assessment still require the development of or modification to evaluation criteria. How do we mark individual assignments that we are now trying out because of INBs? How do we assess the quality of the notebook as a whole, and how does that tie to current curricular standards? These are just a few questions that we need to address before or while working with INBS.

Wrap Up: Should you use interactive notebooks?

Using interactive notebooks is sort of like upgrading to the newest iPhone. If you have no smartphone (or an old smartphone with no features whatsoever) and need one that offers some current features, then yes, upgrade to the iPhone. Also, if just want to get the latest and greatest, then yes, upgrade to the iPhone. But, if the latest iPhone only offers incremental changes to your existing phone, then it may not be worth it. Save your money (and time).

Similarly, if you’re a new teacher looking for an interesting instructional model to learn and follow, then, yes, give interactive notebooks a try. The organizational structure provides an excellent outline to teachers wondering how to reach students in different ways. Or, if you’ve already been teaching for some time but want to try something new that does offer some “new features” in approaching student work and learning (and you have the time to invest in it), then yes, give interactive notebooks a try. But, if you’ve already been teaching and have already developed a system that meets the needs of your learners in a variety of ways, then using interactive notebooks may not be necessary. A better use of your time may be to modify existing assignments instead of starting a whole new structure.

Click on the link below to download our handout (a quick start list of links to get started). Please feel free to share our resources with your colleagues.

Until next time, keep it REAL.

Resources

Handout(s): 40 – Science INBs Quick Start Links

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