When I first heard of interactive notebooking, I got incredibly excited. I used 3-ring binders for years. I had a specific way we put everything in there, I checked them for grades, I gave them specific sections and we spent a lot of time on it. The thought of the composition notebook seemed amazing, so I jumped in. I actually really liked it for a variety of reasons and I truly preferred them to binders.
Then the Pinterest craze took off and suddenly there were all these right and wrong ways to use notebooks and you could do foldables and have specific pages for input and output and you could give the students all these step-by-step instructions. I looked at these other notebooks and felt like I was doing it wrong. I shouldn’t just be having students add notes or diagrams I gave them, we should be building foldables and I should be dictating where they put things. I should take it for a grade! I did all that.
When I changed schools, my very first training at an educational service center included a training on interactive notebooking that included so many amazing examples. That must mean that this was the way to go. So, I stepped up my game. We created some pretty serious foldables together. It was time consuming, it involved so much paper, and it didn’t really fit my style of teaching, but I saw other teachers doing it, so it must be right. One day, I watched the teacher that was sharing my room spend 30 minutes with her students cutting out all these pockets and pieces for studying organelles. They spent so much time putting it together, they didn’t actually get to studying the organelles.
After that lesson, she and I sat and talked about our lessons and foldables. We both agreed, for the most part, they were too time consuming, the students did not get enough content out of them, and there was not enough student driven work. This made me question whether or not to continue notebooking.
In the end, I went back to what I liked about notebooking. I liked having everything in one easy to access place. They are easy to carry. Unlike binders, papers can’t be taken out once attached. They are quite sturdy (seriously talking about the cheap ones they sell for $0.50 just before school starts, not the fancy ones). They are cheap! You can even get them with graph paper for $1. This means that I can stock up and have them for students that can’t get them.
I have recently tried binders again. I decided that I would have my advanced classes use binders one year. It was a mess. Period. Plus, I still did some interactive foldables and flashcards and those did not go into binders easily. I also like to save paper and put 2 papers on 1 sheet; these glue or tape into a composition book easily, not a binder.
I have gone back to composition books and I’m happy with it. I do have some specific tips and tricks I will share soon to make it an easier process. I will tell you that I do not stress over input and output pages, everything goes in there, I still do certain foldables, and liquid glue or tape is your friend.
I love them too! They come in every shape, age, and subject.