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, yatayatata.   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”.  (Btw- 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.