Friday, May 4, 2012

More on Interactive Notebooks

I am going to post a few more pictures of my language arts interactive notebook that I took a couple of weeks ago.  I have been posting a few with each blog, but am going to post several more of them on this entry.   It has been what seems like a long week, so I am going to KISS this post!  That is an acronym I teach my students:  Keep It Short and Simple.  We KISS a lot of stuff when appropriate!

This is a double bubble map we used while reading The Cay by Theodore Taylor.

This is a summarization strategy I found online call "the incredible shrinking notes" where students start out writing a summary of a reading selection on the large index card.  Students are then given the medium sized card and have to take the information from the large card and condense it onto the medium sized card.  Finally, students are given the small card and must then take the information from the medium sized card and condense it down either further onto the small card.  This is a great way for students to get to the main point/idea of a selection.

This is a brief biography of Theodore Taylor we glued in our notebooks when we were reading The Cay, one of his awesome books that can be integrated into either the study of South America or Central America or World War II.  It also has great examples of dialect.

This is a foldable on poetry terms.

Notes on figurative language with some color coding to make the notes user friendly.

Poetry notes also color coded to make them easier to use and more helpful.

More poetry notes...notice an example is created with each type of poem so students have a reference point to refer to when needed.  Once I teach poetry, it is fair game to require students to respond to any type of reading in poetry form.  I teach poetry between Thanksgiving and Christmas each year, which gives students an opportunity to use their poetry skills for the whole second semester.

Another page of poetry notes.

Our last page of poetry notes.  Note the "I Am" poem rules taped into student notebooks and then our class example written underneath. 

We used "Winter Morning Poem" and a sheet of generic poetry analysis questions to aid in comprehension.  The questions are taped into the notebook so when students open them, they can see both poem and questions/answers together.

This is just another poem where we were marking the rhyme scheme, lines, and stanzas. 

15 comments:

  1. WOW! I love your blog and your content! I am going back to 6th next year from 8th this year..."The Cay" stuff caught my eye, that's my favorite book ever! I am going to incorporate ISNs with my 6th graders and I love the ideas you have here. I'm your newest follower!!!!

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  2. This is terrific! I can't wait to implement next year.

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  3. I'm thinking of using ISNs in my 6th grade Reading class next year and love all of the ideas you've posted, especially the strategy for teaching summarizing. Thanks!

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  4. how did you make the figurative language foldable?

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    1. Paula,

      The figurative language part is just notes. It is not a foldable. I think it has 9 different types of figurative language with a definition and an example of each. The word for each different type is colored with colored pencil. Hope this helps.

      Randy

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    2. This will be my 31st year to teach, 8th year for teaching The Cay. My 4th graders love it and I can't wait to use your ideas. Thanks so much for posting!

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  5. You've mentioned Dinah Zike foldables. can you tell me which of her books you bought? she has so many! btw, your blog is so inspirational! keep it up!

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  6. The foldable with poetry terms--how are the flaps glued on? Flaps cut from another sheet of paper and glued on or what?

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    1. When we fold the paper, we leave about a 1/2 inch glue strip and cut up to the glue strip. We have learned to leave that on everything so my students get used to it quickly. You can purchase the book with those foldables in it that can be copied, but I just have students use another sheet of noetbook paper.

      Randy

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  7. I absolutely love your ideas! Questions: Do you use glue sticks or the white liquid? Do the students have their own glue, or do you have it out for each group?

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    1. Thank you for your kind words! We use glue sticks...I request each student have a pencil pouch with glue sticks, scissors, and colored pencils that they have with them at all times. I am lucky to be on a team in which interactive notebooks are being used in all four core classes. This really makes the need for students to have these supplies quickly reachable understood.

      Randy

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  8. Thank you for sharing your wealth of ideas! I "borrowed" many of them, but I also teach "The Road Not Taken", and I think the rhyme scheme is incorrect. Stanza 1 is abaab, like you have, but because stanza 2 does not rhyme with stanza 1, I think the rhyme scheme for stanzas 2 - 4 are cdccd, then efeef and finally ghggh.

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    1. I teach rhyme scheme per stanzas, and begin again with the new stanza as a, b, etc.

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  9. I use these notebooks in my classroom and LOVE them! Students have everything in one place, and it saves me time on grading. I just collect the notebooks every three weeks rather than collecting every assignment each day! Kids like having all of their things together where they can reflect back on what they've done in class so far. It really gives them a feeling of accomplishment.
    I can't wait to try the shrinking note card idea! LOVE IT!

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  10. I love the poem analysis sheet glued over the poem...great idea to keep them together for reference! Do you have a copy of that sheet?? I really love that idea and the depth of questioning. Thank you for your informative site.

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