Interactive Student Notebooks and Scaffolding

l'm linking up with Erin from I'm Lovin Lit for the Thursday Throw Down on all things interactive. :)

PHOTO INFO:  Lesson on Internal and External Conflict.  Examples from video clips on right side of page (with definitions).  Examples from story "Tuesday of the Other June"  on left.  And yup those notes are color coded.  :)  MY students LOVED borrowing those "cool teacher pens".

Beginning of the year/ Give me 5 Activity:

 5 ideas important to the student about Class Rules/Procedures.

Phew, what a year it has been already!  Luckily, I have very sweet students this year, which makes my job a lot easier.  Another positive in my day is the use of the Interactive Student Notebook.  How did I not ever do this before???  While I may have a laid-back nature, I do enjoy structure and organization in materials.  YAY! The ISN saves the day in that compartment.  And as for creativity- it’s got that too! 

To be honest, I spent the first month and a half using Erin’s (I'm Lovin Lit) lessons and interactive resources word for word and in exact order, yata-yata-yata.   And for all the wonderful work she put into it-why not?  But just about now, I have finally got the hang of this ISN!   And my students have too. I LOVE-LOVE- LOVE watching them go back in their notebooks and easily FIND info needed to answer questions.  Yup-it makes me so happy, that I don’t mind the “cheating”.  (Although other students do-until I tell them it’s okay.)

A few quotes on the ISN from my students:

“Whoah, so I can find stuff in it like a dictionary?!?”

“Ohhh now I get it- I can use the table of contents to find my notes!”

“Are we coloring today?”

“So Ms. C- I know why my pages glued together- I kinda toaster streudled.”

“I love my pretty notebook.”

“Ms. C is the glued page fixer queen!”

“I love color-coding!”

So this photo is of my very first “stab” at creating ISN notebook pages.  My students created genre pockets and took notes on each genre.  This was done in pairs with me while the rest of the class read quietly.  THEN, I explained the subgenres, with students taking notes on little slips of paper slipped into each genre pocket.  The culminating activity was for students to cut out pictures of books from Scholastic magazines and sort them in each Genre appropriate pocket.  Students are seated in groups, so they pretty much worked together on “as needed” basis. 

For this lesson on Telling vs. Showing I scaffolded with students.  First, showing how I would take an example of telling and make it into showing.  Then we worked on an example as a class, then each student did the same with a partner (and teacher/assistant help).  Finally, after sharing partner examples and adding to the chart (up on projector), students worked to confidently create their own examples.  I was so proud of what they came up with! "Cotton candy clouds slow danced across the sky."  What a happy teacher I am!!!  (FYI:  this is after a 2-3 week unit on figurative language.)  

By the way- I apologize for picking the sloppiest of notebooks! I was going to snap more pics, but that darn bell rang, and just like that....you know what I heard outside my door.  ;)