Overview for Interactive Notebook
Left Side
Student Process New Ideas
Right Side
Teacher Provides New Information
• Reorganize new information in creative
formats
• Express opinions and feelings
• Explore new ideas
• Class notes
• Discussion notes
• Reading notes
• Handouts with new information
Materials Needed – colored pencils and markers, scissors, glue stick, rulers, etc.
Interactive Notebook
Notebooks have a “left-side, right-side” orientation to help students record, organize, and process new
information. Much of the classroom and homework will be done in the interactive notebook.
Left-Hand Side Right-Hand Side
The left side of the notebook (the “output” side) is
primarily used for processing new ideas. Students work
out an understanding of new material by using
illustrations, diagrams, flow charts, poetry, colors,
matrices, cartoons, etc. Students explore their opinions
and clarify their values on controversial issues, wonder
about “what if” hypothetical situations, and ask
questions about new ideas. They also express their
feelings and reactions to activities that tap into
intrapersonal learning. And they review what they have
learned and preview what they will learning. By doing
so, students are encouraged to see how individual
lessons fit into the larger context of a unit.
The left side of the notebook
• Stresses that writing down lecture notes does not mean
students have learned the information. They must
actively do something with the information before the
internalize it.
• Clearly indicates which ideas are the teacher’s and
which are the student’s. Everything on the left side is
are student ideas and belong to the student.
• Gives students permission to be playful and
experimental since they know the left side is their page
and they will not be interfering with class notes.
• Allows students to use various learning styles to
process social studies information.
The right side of the notebook (the
“input” side) is used for recording class
notes, discussion notes, and reading
notes. Typically, all “testable”
information is found here. Historical
information can be organized in the
form of traditional outline notes.
However, the right side of the notebook
is also an excellent place for the teacher
to model how to think graphically by
using illustrated outlines, flow charts,
annotated slides, T-charts, and other
graphic organizers.
Handouts with new information also go
on the right side.
The right side of the notebook
• Is where the teacher organizes a
common set of information that all
students must know.
• Gives students the “essentials” of
the social studies content.
• Provides the teacher with an
opportunity to model for students
how to think graphically. There are
many visual ways to organize
historical information that enhance
understanding.
Why Interactive Notebooks engage students:
• Students use both their visual and linguistic intelligences. The left side of the notebooks allows
visual learners to use their best medium to explore and share ideas, and encourages nonvisual
learners to become more proficient with graphic approaches in a nonthreatening way. Both types of
learners will work with their writing skills.
• Note taking becomes an active process. These notebooks invite students to become engaged in their
learning. Students will spend some time passively recording ideas from a lecture or the board, but
most of their time doing something with ideas-putting them into their own words, searching for
implication or assumptions, transforming words into visuals, finding the main point of a political
cartoon, etc. This is especially true of the left side of the notebook, which is reserved for their active
exploration of social studies ideas.
• Notebooks help students to systematically organize as they learn. With the teacher’s
encouragement, students can used their notebooks to record ideas about every activity they engage
in during a unit. Have them use a variety of organization techniques-topic headings, colored
highlights, different writing styles-to synthesize historical concepts and make coherence of what
they learn. The notebook permits assignments to be kept together in a regular place and in logical
order.
• Notebooks become a portfolio on individual learning. These personal, creative notebooks become a
record of each student’s growth. The teacher, students, and even parents can review a student’s
progress in writing, illustrating, recording, thinking, and organization skills.
Components of Interactive Notebooks:
• Cover – encourage students to create colorful covers that reflect the topics and themes that are being
learned. This makes the notebooks their own creation that they can take pride in; it also reduces the
number of lost notebooks throughout the school year.
• Student Guidelines – decide in advance what students should have in their notebooks and clearly
communicate those expectations. Most teachers create a list of criteria, e.g. when the notebooks will
be graded, the criteria for grading, what percentage the notebook will count for the social studies
grade will by the notebook. Ask students to attach that list to the inside cover of their notebooks.
Some teachers also include directions for specific types of notebook assignments, class rules, and
their grading policy.
• Table of Contents – have students create a running table of contents for their notebooks. In addition
to the list of assignments they have to complete, the teacher may also add comments or scores for
each assignment. This will help the teacher when it comes time to grade the notebooks.
• Author Page – let students create a page about themselves at the front of their notebooks. The
author page could include a photograph and personal information such as age, height, favorite foods,
and family members. Personalizing the notebooks helps to ensure that very few will get lost.
• Work in Progress – ask students to tape of staple a manila envelope to the inside of the back cover
of the notebooks as a place to keep “work in progress.” Once an assignment is completed, then it
can be placed in the appropriate place in the notebook.
• Grading – create a system that allows the teacher to easily grade the notebooks every grading
period.
• Lost and Found – keep a master copy so that if a student does lose a notebook, he can review the
master notebook so determine what needs to be redone. The master copy can also be used by
students who were absent or pulled out of class during the class period.
Ideas for Interactive Student Notebooks
(from History Alive)
1. Advertisements – design advertisements to represent migration, settlement, or the significance of a
specific site.
2. Annotated Classroom Maps – create annotated classroom maps after Experiential Exercises to
show how classroom experiences relate to historical situations.
3. Annotated Illustrations – make annotated illustrations to recount a story of travel or migration, to
represent a moment in time, or to label architectural features.
4. Annotated Slides – use simple sketches of powerful images, accompanied by annotations, to help
students understand difficult content.
5. Book or Compact Disk Covers – design book or compact disk covers to highlight and illustrate
important concepts.
6. Caricatures – draw caricatures to present the main characteristics of a group in history or how an
individual or group was perceived by another group.
7. Eulogies – write eulogies to extol the virtues of prominent historical figures or civilizations.
8. Facial Expressions – draw facial expressions to summarize the feelings of groups who have
different perspectives on a single event.
9. Flow Charts – create flow charts to show causal relationships or to show steps in a sequence.
10. Forms of Poetry – write various forms of poetry to describe a person, place, event, or feeling of a
moment.
11. Historical Journals – assume the role of a historical figure to keep a journal that recounts the
figure’s feelings and experiences in language of the era.
12. Illustrated Dictionary Entries – explain key terms by created illustrated dictionary entries. Write a
definition, provide a synonym and an antonym, and draw an illustration to represent each term.
13. Illustrated Outlines – use simple drawings and symbols to graphically highlight or organize class
notes.
14. Illustrated Proverbs – create illustrated proverbs to explain complex concepts.
15. Illustrated Timelines – create illustrated timelines to sequence a series of events in chronological
order.
16. Invitations – design invitations that highlight the main goals and key facts of important historical
events.
17. Making Connections Outside the Classroom – after completing an activity, find examples outside
of class of the topic or concept studied.
18. Metaphorical Representations – create metaphorical representations to explain difficult or abstract
historical concepts.
19. Mind Notes – draw and label outlines of the heads of important historical figures. Fill in the
outline with quotations and paraphrased thoughts from the figure.
20. Mosaics – synthesize information from a broad content area by creating mosaics. Use visuals and
words to represent similarities, differences, and important concepts.
21. Perspective Pieces – design drawings or write newspaper articles to represent different
perspectives on controversial figures, events, and concepts.
22. Pictowords – create pictowords (symbolic representations of words or phrases that show their
meaning) to help define difficult concepts.
23. Political Cartoons and Comic Strips – create political cartoons and comic strips to provide social
or political commentary on important historical events.
24. Postcards – after studying specific content, write postcards to summarize information about places
or events.
25. Posters – draw posters to emphasize key points about political ideas, a political figure’s point of
view, or reasons behind important historical events.
26. Provocative Statements – have students react to provocative statements to introduce historical
themes or to critically assess a historical period.
27. Report Card – used graded evaluations to assess the policies of leaders or governments.
28. Sensory Figures – create sensory figures (simple drawings of prominent historical figures with
descriptions of what they might be seeing, hearing, saying, feeling, or doing) to show the thoughts,
feelings, and experiences of historical figures.
29. Spectrums – place information on spectrums to show multiple perspectives on a topic or to express
an opinion about an issue.
30. Spoke Diagrams – create spoke diagrams as a visual alternative to outlining.
31. T-Charts – create T-charts to compare classroom experiences with historical details, to look at
advantages and disadvantages of a topic, or to compare and contrast two different items.
32. Venn Diagrams – create Venn diagrams to compare and contrast people, concepts, places, or
groups.
33. “What If?” Statements – use “what if?” statements to apply newfound knowledge to hypothetical
historical situations.
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