Teaching Science With Interactive Notebooks

Kellie Marcarelli

• Publisher: Corwin
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9781452258461
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Éducation
• Subtopic: Enseignement des sciences et technologies

Increase student learning in the inquiry-based science classroom!

Interactive notebooks allow students to record observations, reflect on learning, and self-assess their work. Packed with student examples, this detailed guide explains the unique features that make interactive notebooks more effective tools than conventional notebooks for science classrooms. This resource:

• Describes the nuts and bolts of implementing interactive notebooks, including execution, time management, and grading
• Uses the 5E Learning Cycle as the framework for science instruction
• Emphasizes the importance of writing in science and provides strategies for modeling effective writing
• Explores strategies to encourage collaborative student inquiry and foster whole-class discussions

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Introduction

WHAT IS AN INTERACTIVE NOTEBOOK?

An interactive notebook is a tool students use to make connections prior to new learning, to revise their thinking, and to deepen their understandings of the world around them. It is the culmination of a student’s work throughout the year that shows both the content learned (input) and the reflective knowledge (output) gained. Put another way, an interactive notebook provides a space where students may take what is inside their brains, lay it out, make meaning, apply it, and share it with their peers, parents, and teachers. I use the term interactive to describe how these notebooks can be used. That is to say, the notebooks support interactivity and an exchange of ideas from teacher to student, student to student, student to parent, and parent to teacher.

Here’s what one student wrote about her interactive notebook:

It’s like my own piece of property that I have to take responsibility for. It shows my personal thinking and creativity. My notebook shows that I can think for myself and figure out where I went wrong for myself instead of someone telling me. I like my interactive notebook because I feel like it’s my own little book where I can write my own questions and answer them. However, I think it represents me. Like if I were to look through a stranger’s interactive notebook, I would get a sense of their personality, too—cool.

Teachers use interactive notebooks to increase student thinking and achievement. They provide a means of communicating, tracking, assessing, and reflecting the work students do. Interactive notebooks provide a window into the minds of students to reveal their true understanding and their misconceptions, and they provide an opportunity for teachers to open up new horizons for their students to explore.

HOW ARE INTERACTIVE NOTEBOOKS USED?

Below is a brief overview of the process of using notebooks as part of the science curriculum. In the chapters that follow, we will examine the steps of using interactive notebooks in much greater detail.

At the beginning of each science unit, the teacher works with the class to develop an overarching question or problem that will be researched during the unit. All learning during the unit will be linked back to this question.

The unit continues with several lab investigations. The teacher starts each one with a key question, giving students time to write what they think in their notebooks and then discuss it in groups. The teacher and students explore the ideas in class, and students individually form their hypotheses. This allows students to start thinking about the topic and prepares students for the next step.

Students then participate in an inquiry-based investigation—gathering data, observing, forming questions, making sketches, and beginning to formulate ideas about the topic being studied. Student interaction and probing questions by the teacher and peers are essential parts of the process. Students record the processes and data in their notebooks.

After the investigation is over, the students and teacher come together as a class for a discussion (I call this “an accountable talk” session), where the collected data is used to make meaning of student’s initial ideas and questions. This is the exciting part of the process. Discussions may become heated as students’ ideas are challenged. The evidence that was gathered during the lab drives the entire conversation, and some students hold on to their beliefs, while other students change theirs. Sometimes, students discuss the idea that the data might be flawed because of too many variables. For example, during one discussion, two students debated the idea that the tests performed on various gasses produced minimal results because the method that some groups used to gather the gas was crude. The conversation went on for over 30 minutes, until the class came to the conclusion that as long as they noted whether the gas burned or not it was fine because no exact numbers were being applied to the final conclusion.

A homework assignment completes the processing. Using their notebooks, students write conclusions or summaries, create graphs, or complete other similar assignments designed to push their thinking to the next level.

On subsequent days, students complete additional investigations, using their notebooks and following this same process. Students become accustomed to and comfortable with a process that starts with a question, introduces ideas through lab or other inquiry experience, includes hypothesizing, collection of data, presentation of evidence, and summarization. Keeping this lesson framework constant, with variation in the learning experiences to keep interest high, this scientific method for investigation becomes the continuing mode through which to explore any new ideas in class. The process, patterns, and expectations remain the same. By following an established protocol that stays constant, the student has the teacher’s format to rely on every day and every lesson.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF USING INTERACTIVE NOTEBOOKS?

The benefits of using interactive notebooks can be considered from three vantage points: developing students’ thinking in ways that prepare them to be part of the 21st-century workforce, increasing communication between stakeholders, and differentiating instruction.

Preparing Students to Compete Globally

On the Third International Mathematics and Science Study, U.S. students performed poorly compared to their counterparts in other countries. These results have fueled an increased sense of urgency in regard to improving science instruction in U.S. schools. According to Wallis (2006), schools can better prepare students for the future by

• Starting earlier in the student’s developmental stage;
• Monitoring the gap between minority and majority social classes;
• Providing opportunity to challenge students, to push them further;
• Using computers to support instructional goals rather than just to be using them;
• Providing inquiry lessons that bridge relevant content; and
• Involving the community.

Using interactive notebooks in the classroom targets all of the aforementioned needs and helps develop the globally competitive student. Notebooks address these needs by

• Connecting students’ thinking and experiences with science concepts;
• Engaging students in collaborative inquiry as a way of learning science content;
• Providing opportunities for all students;
• Creating a concrete record of reflection, assessment, and connections that can be viewed and discussed;
• Developing academic language; and
• Providing students with an opportunity to think critically and make informed decisions.

The interactive notebook becomes real evidence of student learning and thinking, a shaping tool for future productive citizens in the science world.

Increasing Communication Between Stakeholders

Notebooking promotes communication between the stakeholders—students, teachers, and parents. A science classroom exposes students to shared experiences of observable marvels or happenings. The interactive notebook is a way of capturing these common experiences on paper, in a place where it won’t get lost, so that students can refer back to the common experiences whenever they need them as a way of driving discourse. This provides students with an opportunity to come to consensus and build on the knowledge that was collaboratively gained.

Consider an example based on Newton’s first law of motion. As part of their inquiry, students observed low-friction cars at rest and at a constant speed moving in the same direction. They observed the interactions and collected data (input). Figure 1.1 shows an example of student observations. Students used their findings as evidence to support their ideas about the phenomena (output). The interactive notebooks provided a means of communicating with the teacher. The teacher read the students’ work and gained an understanding of their thinking processes. Student entries become evidence not only of what they know but also of how they know it. Entries also indicated what students don’t know.

The interactive notebook also enhances communication between the student and the parent or the teacher and the parent. Parents can simply pick up the interactive notebook and start asking questions about the student’s entries. The interactive notebook provides parents with evidence of a student’s conceptual understanding and personal reflections. A notebook rubric, which is permanently affixed in the front of the notebook, can be used by parents, teachers, and students to ...