Teaching Science With Interactive Notebooks

One of the things the past lessons have taught me is that we really need to hold our students accountable for their own learning and to make sense of what is learned in the classroom. I have taught social studies with interactive notebooks (I.N.) for years and found it very useful in achieving those learning goals, so I thought that there must be a way to do this in science, even if it is much more technical. Marcarelli describes not only the "why" of using I.N., but also how to best organize them, how to use them as an assessment tool, how to incorporate writing and discussion into science, and finally, how to actually institute them in your classroom. I loved the fact that she has a very clear, step-by-step routine for each different activity within a unit, and that the entire unit is driven by one primary question and secondary, individualized questions. As with all I.N., students must make sense of what was done in class after EVERY activity, but the thing that makes Marcarelli's system stand out are the Aha connections (ongoing learning), the Aha Thesis (formal writing and assessment), and ideas for the output pages (summaries and conclusions). I am really looking forward to starting next school year with her ideas in science; she has also inspired me to re-think how I use I.N. in social studies!!

This book was surprisingly unhelpful. I have been gradually moving towards interactive notebooks, and I was hoping this book would help me go all-in for next year. The book describes how the author formats interactive notebooks in her 8th grade science classroom. (The overall format is a big ideas page, followed by inputs on right pages and outputs on left pages, followed by a unit thesis paper, followed by a self-reflection paper.) The book does NOT describe specific activities (like making flip charts, foldables, etc.). In fact, she mentions that she assigns the interactive part of the notebook to her kids as homework, something I could never do with my 9th graders.I think this book is great (ignoring the fact that the writing is too vague) IF you teach more advanced kids that regularly handle project-based learning and extensive writing (The "Self Reflection" student example provided was 3 typed pages long; The "Unit Thesis" student example provided was 10 paragraphs long.) However, I've found information on interactive notebooks that is more applicable to my remedial students elsewhere.

This book has a lot of great ideas for starting science notebooks. I teach lower grades so I am adapting several things to make it fit my needs. The book I received was in great shape as well. If you are overwhelmed by the thought of starting science notebooks, START HERE!

This book gives you a easy way to start and implement interactive notebooks in your classroom. It is geared towards a middle school/high school classroom. It is a pretty quick read and gives detailed information on the first 2 weeks of classroom implementation. Which is very helpful for those of us doing Interactive Notebooks for science the first time. The best part is that the author includes tons of reproducibles that you can use for your own students. If you don't have time to read the whole book, I would suggest reading chapters 2, 5, and 6. Hope that helps!

What an awesome resource! I implemented Science Notebooks at the start of this school year just a couple weeks ago and have followed Kellie's methods/ Things are going very well! I LOVE seeing the "Aha Connections" the students are making. It's taking some time to get them used to it but I remind them after each lesson/activity to go back to their Aha pages and write what they learned and they are getting the hang of it. I've done a few notebooks checks so far and am so impressed with them so far! These are going to be an invaluable resource for both the students and for me as the teacher! Thanks :)

I work with special needs students who hate to read and write, but using this book as kind of a guideline, we started our own little Science journal. We would do a Science Experiment (using the Science Teacher's Activity a Day by Pam Walker) aiming for one a day, but with less than an hour it was too difficult to finish it all in that time period. At first they were more interested in the experiment, but as time passed they started enjoying the aspect of having notes and pictures/diagrams of the experiment and just the sense of accomplishment. These two items together covered Science, Reading and writing and it's really nice to have all the work in a nice little neat notebook/journal.

Marcarelli is a compelling author. She drew me in immediately with her style of writing and understandable organization. I immediately emailed all the science teachers I work with to get them on board. Although my colleagues felt overwhelmed to start the interactive notebooks this year, I have just finished my first week with 7th grade students and already see a difference in both behavior and applied aptitude. Journals have always been a big part of my science curriculum but now I feel with the help of Ms. Marcarelli I can make them so much more effective. I embrace the challenge.

I love the notebooks we've created in my 7th grade science classes! Some students quickly caught on to the system and knew what was coming next as far as labeling the pages and how a unit was set up. My principal was impressed because the notebook focused on the state standards. She asked if I had come up with this idea. I wish I had! Unfortunately I won't know how the notebook helps test scores until next year. I will tweek a few things next year. I had the kids write the self reflection at the end of 3 units. At the end of the fourth unit we wrote a connection thesis instead. The thesis makes more sense. I highly recommend keeping a notebook of this style.