Tamara Griffith
Organizing Content Knowledge
"The weakest ink is stronger than the strongest memory."
~The Exponential Growth Strategist
Over the course of my teaching career, how I have had students take notes of content material has evolved. As a sixth grade teacher, many of my students initially lack the key organizational and note-taking skills required to simply " take notes" on their own. In addition, many of my students come to me not knowing how to utilize the notes they take to improve their knowledge and understanding of key content and skills. To aid student learning and to demonstrate good note-taking and utilization habits, I implement interactive student notebooks as an instructional strategy in my classroom.
Interactive notebooks help students organize both the content material and their thoughts about the content material in a personalized way that accommodates multiple learning styles simultaneously. These notebooks allow students to actively engage with the content in a variety of ways, such as through written reflections and the creation of foldables and graphic organizers. By frequently utilizing and interacting with their interactive notebooks, students are continuously exposed to previously taught material; each time they practice a skill while using their interactive student notebooks, students review previously taught material, thereby fostering deeper understandings of both content knowledge and skills. Essentially, students are learning and studying simultaneously. In addition, utilizing their interactive notebooks allows students to apply their prior knowledge and skills to new learning, thus facilitating deeper mastery.
Each time we learn a new skill, students take notes in their interactive notebooks. Sometimes, these notes are in the form of a graphic organizer, sometimes in a foldable, and sometimes, students choose their own presentation. Whenever students are practicing a skill, they use their interactive notebooks to support their application; oftentimes, students can be seen referencing their notes while they are completing their classwork. Explore the slideshow below to see the various ways this instructional strategy is utilized by my students.
One way that students organize their notes is through graphic organizers. Graphic organizers allow students to visually organize information into smaller, more manageable chunks, which helps facilitate student understanding. This is an example of a graphic organizer a student completed at the beginning of our identity unit.
Students' interactive notebooks also house exemplars of certain skills. Exemplars demonstrate what is expected of students, motivate students to achieve at greater levels, and serve as a model for students when they need to apply a skill. This is an example of an exemplar paragraph using the PEEL strategy for writing. This student color-coded each step of the process to facilitate recall for subsequent applications of this strategy.
Occasionally, students share their reflections and/or written compositions with their peers to get feedback on their learning. Here, two students share and compare the central ideas they found in an article.
One way that students organize their notes is through graphic organizers. Graphic organizers allow students to visually organize information into smaller, more manageable chunks, which helps facilitate student understanding. This is an example of a graphic organizer a student completed at the beginning of our identity unit.
In sum, interactive student notebooks are an effective instructional strategy used almost daily in my classroom. This particular instructional strategy helps keep my students organized, allows them to reinforce their learning through review, activate their prior knowledge, and take ownership of their learning. All of these factors contribute to greater academic achievement and mastery of content, thus contributing to our overarching big goals.
In addition, students' reflections regarding their interactive student notebooks are included below.
