1. Interactive Notebook Method
From History Alive

3. What is the Interactive Notebook?
Allows students to record information about history in an engaging way. They can…
*Transform written concepts into visuals
*Find main points of a political cartoon
*Organize historical events into a topical map
*Draw whatever illustration that makes sense to them
*Personalize the historic event
*Organize the student
*Help students sequence assignments
Encourage pride in student work
Facilitate cooperative interaction
Appeal to multiple intelligences
Provide opportunities to spiral instruction and facilitate learning
The TASK is…
Complex
Takes patience
Requires good modeling
Must be consistently reinforced
This takes time to teach, model, and have the students master. Be patient. It is worth it!

4. “Many student notebooks are drab repositories of information filled with uninspired, unconnected, and poorly understood ideas.” --- History Alive Website
Interactive Notebooks…
Are colorful with diagrams, bullets and arrows
Are presented in a unique, personal style
Key ideas are underlined in color or highlighted
Venn diagrams show relationships
Cartoon sketches show people and events
Timelines illustrate chronology
Arrows show relationships
Interactive Notebooks Require…
They use several types of writing and innovative graphic techniques to record history
They are forced to process these ideas
They might transform written concepts into visuals
Find the main idea of a political cartoon
Use a graphic organizer to place historic events in a relational way
Students are encouraged to use critical thinking and be more creative, independent thinkers
Interactive Notebooks encourage…
Notes to be organized, logically ordered
Information processing in the student’s brain
Better understanding of history

5. Why Interactive Notebooks?
Students use both their visual and linguistic intelligences
Approach understanding in many ways
Use many types of writing and graphic techniques
Each student can select their best medium to explore and learn new content
Note taking becomes an active process
Students are invited to take notes—it’s fun!
Students will read their notes—they have to in order to process for the left side
Students will be working with (rehearsing) the information which facilitates learning
Students will actively be involved with history
Notebooks help students to systematically organize as they learn---Organization is key to the notebook. They provide routine and structure.
Topic headings---They stress the organization of a book

6. Why Interactive Notebooks?
Notebooks become a portfolio of individual learning
These are personal and creative
They record student growth in history. They show progress
They serve as a chronological record of the learning and are great for review. They promote student accountability and independence.
Interactive Notebooks allow you to record information and process it to improve your level of understanding.
As student learn new ideas, they will use several types of writing and graphic techniques to record them.
Then the students will do something with those ideas. This process will get the students to use critical-thinking skills to organize and process information.
As a result, the student can become more creative, more independent thinkers and the student will have a deeper understanding of what they are learning.

7. The Payoff… Is a way for students to organize their work
Teaches students how to think
Uses reading strategies within a content area, such as science or math
Helps students to distinguish between what they know and what they need to focus on

8. …And Finally Students make their own meaningful connections
It encourages pride in student work
It encourages cooperative learning
It appeals to multiple intelligences
The kids love it and learn so much!

9. What goes on the Right Side?
How to interact with the WOW (Words of Wisdom) side (Right side):
This section is used in class to:
take class notes
draw and label diagrams
draw maps
list vocabulary
use graphic organizer
teacher handouts
answer questions from text readings
The key ideas or “gists” are highlighted or underlined
Use arrows, bullets and notes to show relationships between ideas
Write a question mark next to any concept that may seem confusing
Sometimes we will use three-columned or Cornell notes to replace the left-right format. Both of these styles of note taking will be taught in class.

10. What goes on the right side?
Input goes on the right side! Input is all the information that you are supposed to learn.
Some examples of input are: thrilling notes – lecture, guest speaker, text or other source; vocabulary words; video and film notes; teacher questions; readings: questions and answers; sample problems; and lab information and procedures.
Things to know about right sides
Always start the page with the date and title at the top of the page.
The right page is for writing down information you are given in class.
Write legibly. Use highlighting and color to make important information stand out.
Write summaries at the bottom of each page of notes to reduce the amount you have to study.

11. Marking Up and Boxing In
Block in the text, make a line separating this information from other notes
Underline key concepts and circle words you need to know
Next, draw an arrow to the other side of the notebook and box in
Paraphrase your notes and create your graphics

12. Paraphrasing
Paraphrasing takes a lot of modeling and is not learned easily.
Students rewrite teacher supplied notes in their words. This gives them ownership and makes them think about their notes.

13. Right Side of Notebook Some graphic techniques: · Size of letters
·         Boldness of letters
·         Capital letters
·         Indentations
·         Underlining
·         Bullets
·         Use of colored pens
·         Use of highlighters
·         Drawings
·         Diagrams

14. Write notes in the margins

15. Student Example of Right Side of Notebook

16. What goes on the Left-Side?
Interactive Notebooks: Left Sides *The left side of the notes. demonstrates your understanding of the information from the right side of traditional notes. *You work with the input, and INTERACT with the information in creative, unique, and individual ways. *The left side incorporates and reflects how you learn Social Studies as well as what you learn in Social Studies. What goes on the left side? OUTPUT GOES ON THE LEFT SIDE! EVERY LEFT SIDE PAGE GETS USED! ALWAYS USE COLOR – it helps the brain learn and remember.

17. Left Side of the Notebook
Paraphrase or clarify items
Enter a drawing, photo, sketch, or magazine picture that illustrates the concept, ideas, or facts
Pose questions about the information
Form and express an opinion
Predict outcomes or next steps
Create a metaphor that captures the essence of the information/issue
Formulate and record a contradictory perspective
Write a reflection on the information or experience
Find a quote that connects to the concept; record it and explain your rationale
Make connections between the information/text and your own life, another text, and/or the world
Create a mind map that captures the main topic and key concepts and supportive detail
Create an acronym that will help you to remember the information covered
Make connections to the content/processes of other courses
Right Side of the Notebook
Notes on a:
mini-lesson
lecture
lab
reading
film/video/documentary
small group or large group discussion
collaborative group process
a copied excerpt of a text   

20. What else goes on the Left Side?
• Brainstorming
• Pictures
• Venn Diagrams
• Other diagrams
• Reflections
• Flow charts
• Drawings
• Concept maps
• Writing prompts
• Discovery Headlines
• Riddles
• Cartoons
• Metaphors and analogies
• Data and graphs you generate
• Graphic organizers
• Biography posters
• Other creative avenues

21. What else goes on the Left Side?
Samples of Interactive Notebook Entries (Left side):
One sentence summaries
Drawings, cartoons, doodles, sketches etc.
Mind maps (webs with pictures)
Graphic organizers
Creative writing
Poetry
Venn diagrams to show relationships
Timelines, story maps, flowcharts, etc.
Picture sentences
Raps, song lyrics, translation to another language, etc..
Games related to concept
Try to write a sentence or paragraph using all the key words or concepts.
Charts and graphs
Letters
Practice
Predictions
Speeches
Riddles

22. What else goes on the Left Side?
Witticisms or puns
Magazine or billboard ad
Lists of information to research
Humorous “Top Ten” lists
Checklists to use in the future
SOAL – sum of all learned
Paraphrase or clarify the WOW side
Write your opinion about the subject
Create an acronym to help you remember the notes on the WOW Side
Make connections with your other classes
Create metaphors to help you understand the concepts
Illustrated outlines
Power thinking flow chart
Create pictowords (pictures that show the meanings of words)
What if? Statements
Acrostic poems
Definition poems

23. Questions that can go on the Left Side?
Questions you want answered:
Summarize and Synthesize
Ask questions
Make predictions
Set a purpose
Decide what matters most
I wonder why....
What caused...
I think...
This is similar to...
This is important because...
What do they mean by...
What I find confusing is...
What will happen next is...
I can relate to this because...
This reminds me of...
As I read, I keep wanting to ask...
Three important points/ideas are...
These are important because...
What comes next...
The author wants us to think...
At this point the article/story is about...
I still don’t understand...
What interested me most was...
The author’s purpose here is to...
A good word to describe (e.g., this story’s tone) is...because...
This idea/story is similar to...

24. Additional Questions to be written and considered on the Left Side?
What do I already know about this topic?
What’s the BIG picture here?
What’s the author going to say next?
What are the “expert” questions?
What questions does this information raise for me?
What information is important here?
How can I paraphrase and summarize this information?
How can I organize this information
How can I picture this information?
What’s my “hook” for remembering this information?
How does this information fit in with what I already know?
What more do I need to know?

25. Student Example of Left Side of Notebook

26. Student Example of Left Side of Notebook

29. Historical Example of Interactive Notebook
Leonardo da Vinci’s Notes: Visual Explanations & Visual Narratives
*Leonardo da Vinci used a vocabulary of both images and words to help him make sense and make visible the ideas in his head.
*Through such “studies,” he learned
and shaped the ideas t hat lead to his final paintings.
Even da Vinci used Cornell Notes as this page from his journal shows Visual Explanations and Visual Narrative

35. Websites
- this site will lead you to many other links and provide information about the positive features of interactive notebooks.
Cornell notes page
–this page has many links for using diverse note taking and organizational templates from the Tucson Unified School District.

36. Websites
- All subject areas are represented with lots of interactive notebook resources.
  -Interactive notebooks, Smartboards, and more.

37. Websites
If you have never incorporated an interactive notebook in your classroom, this would be the place to start since the materials, directions, and resources are excellent and quite complete.  All are kid and teacher friendly.   

38. Websites
If you want interactive notebook activities already made for ANY subject, check out this site.  Although many of the notebooks are based on the Virginia SOLS, content for topic is pretty universal.                                          
If you are a social studies/history/government teacher, you may want to visit the web site for HISTORY ALIVE (also GOVERNMENT ALIVE).

39. Websites and Books Classroom Instruction That Works!
by Robert Marzano, Debra Pickering, and Jane Pollack
History Alive!