Interactive notebooks

I researched all summer for ways to incorporate the interactive student notebook into my language arts curriculum. Those of you who teach this subject can understand what a beast it can be. I teach grades 7, 8, and 9 and it hasn't been as difficult as I thought it would be.

I think the hardest part has been the page numbering! My kids were always off and it became very frustrating for them and me. About four weeks in, I had almost given up with the page numbering and just told them to go to the next double page spread. I still am not sure how it happened, but for the last three weeks when I give my page number we are all together. Very strange indeed.

My kids are using five subject notebooks and I am using the last section for journaling, daily grammar practice, and other bellwork. Once we got going, I realized that we have several days that we don't use the notebook so I think a section per quarter is going to be plenty. I have posted some of my bell work activities on the interactive whiteboard activities page.

 I have started printing out my DOL sentences and cutting them into strips. I hand them out as the student enters the room. They use editing marks on the strip and tape it in so that it flips up. Then they write the sentence correctly under the flap. This has been going real well and seems to take up less class time.

My Freshmen are using  monthly journaliing pages that I found on pinterest. I simply give them the page and check for completeness at the end of the month. I used to give them a prompt everyday and make them write it, date it, and write a half page response. With these I set no requirements, which threw them at first, but I simply explained that it was their journal and to do what they thought needed to be done. I could tell they thought I had lost my mind, and I wasn't sure how this would turn out. .When I went to grade them I couldn't believe how much work my kids had put in to their journal pages! Full pages of poetry, illustrations, recipes, stories, etc.... Giving up control and letting them take over has been one of the best things I have ever done. The journal pages can be found below and on my Pinterest page. I did not write these and don't know who did or I would definitely give them the credit they deserve. They so are awesome!
                                                                                                                                                   

                   

                    

         Here are the links to the other pages:

 January  
February (fixed link)                                                           

March

April

May

September

October

November

All Journal Pages Here

Here are some pages from my notebook. Students look at my book a lot so I don't have any answers in them. I have put in a few keys but only after we have taken the test. The stickers in the upper right corner a reminder that I have a whiteboard lesson for it.

Text structures

Right: Text Structure Foldable
Left: Students had to create a graphic organizer for each passage and highlight the signal words

Right: Notes over biographies and autobiographies
Left: Students wrote an autobiographical paragraph about themselves and a biographical paragraph  about a  class \mate.

Right: Notes and flip-out page on fiction
Left: web that visually shows the elements of fiction

right: Short story divide page
Left: quiz over the elements of fiction. This page flips up and students write the corrections for any answer that they missed. This will come in handy when preparing for finals.

Right: Reviewed the various genres. Also used a group activity from "The Middle School Mouth" that was excellent! I wrote a note on the top of the page to remind me next year! I also got the PowerPoint that goes with it. I highly recommend this lesson form TPT!!
Left: They had to find or create book cover that they have read that fall in each category.

This was a vocabulary lesson. I used this foldable that I found on Pinterest and  added that they write  a sentence for each word using a synonym as a context clue.

This was a cause and effect lesson. They  took notes about cause and effect and how it can be a chain reaction in a story. They did the chain of events on the left over their story, and I gave them a nonfiction article for them to highlight for homework. 

This was a comparre and contrast lesson where they compared  the short story "The Necklace" with the  Grimm version of "Cinderella".  My Freshmen loved it!

This a review assignment. I usually have them put these on the right and the test it covers on the left. Corrections are under the test.

Study guide on the right and test on the left.

Lesson over reading strategies

Lesson over using reading strategies. Left side I gave them the questions to answer on strips and they wrote their answers on the page. This was seventh grade.

Making predictions and a graphic organizer I found on TPT

 Lesson on character motivation

Lesson on sentence fragments

 Subjects in unusal order

 Creating an outline over a nonfiction article

Vocabulary lesson. Word diagrams hav the word in the circle, synonym on the first line, definition on the second line, and a complete sentence on the third. 

Here is a great link to TCI's PowerPoint over ISN"s. This is over social studies notebooks but I have gotten many great ideas for my language arts notebooks from here. The full screen link for their book is here.

Interactive Notebook Student Pages

Here are some pics from my students ISN's.

Active reading strategies for seventh grade.  Right a foldable the completed in pairs using their textbook. On the left they used the strategies to read a story and answer questions I printed on strips of paper.

All about me pages. Students had to use strategies from the handout on the right to create a page about themselves. This was an introduction  activity.

After reading the Tell Tale Heart we did a small group activity to see if the narrator should be allowed to plead insanity. Students then wrote a 5 paragraph essay to the jury explaining their position.  This was an 8th grade activity and they loved it!

Introduction to text structures. We read two articles and tried to determine the genre, what structures were used, and the author's purpose for writing the articles.

Lesson on the types of nonfiction.

Activity on biography and autobiography. 

Outlining activity. students took notes and outlined a partners outfit on the right. On the left they read a nonfiction article and outlined main idea and supporting details.

Activity on Character motivation.

Student pages created on active reading strategies.

Sample journal page.  link to these pages can be found on the Interactive Notebook page.

Vocabulary Foldable

Ninth grade vocabulary activity: Students  defined a given list of words then highlighted the word according to the part of speech that the word was used as in our story. They used that information to find synonyms and antonyms for the words using an online dictionary. 

Review and test. Test corrections go on the sheet under the test itself.