Not Your Mama's Note-booking Experience

Well, I did it! I survived the note-booking immersion days with the 3rd graders. Woohoo! I really do love introducing notebooks this way, but MAN am I tired! (Granted this is partially due to the 2 month old that still gets up once a night...)

Anyhow - one of the scariest parts of getting note-booking up and running in the classroom is figuring out how to get them up and running! Trying to figure out a way to get the kids to embrace their notebooks as a tool for them rather than copying what the teachers write in theirs is a real struggle. A few years back we decided to try to tackle this very problem by doing a whole-day note-booking immersion experience. Yup - our third graders spend one entire day (minus recess and lunch) note-booking and learning from each other. We brought back the idea of constructivism and let them struggle through it at the beginning, but it is SO worth it in the end. We tell them that the goal for the day is to figure out as many ways to use our notebooks as possible, and that they will need to be brave in trying and sharing new things today (part of our growth mindset). If they can figure out a way to use their notebook - we want them to try it! :)

So how do you plan one of these amazing days???

Here's the basics:

School Garden 

*Choose the location(s): We have done this off campus and on-campus, indoors and out. It really is dependent on what you have access to (buses, outdoor areas, etc.) and the weather. You want to plan for an area where kids will be engaged in their surroundings. This year we used our outdoor garden, butterfly garden, the park across the street, and our classroom. We put the outside areas early in our agenda while the temps. were still relatively cool, and saved the indoor things for the afternoon when temperatures would be warmer.

Heading Back from the Park

*Find some adult help: It is ideal to have 4-5 students in a group with an adult. This means asking (and sometimes begging) other adults to join in the fun. Since we have groups of about 20 we needed 4 adults to pull this off. Since the classroom teacher and I were both there already we needed 2 more. These could be parent volunteers, interns/aides, librarian, tech specialist, reading specialist, math specialist, PE teachers, principal, literally anyone you can find for the day. This year I was lucky enough to have my mom (a retired teacher with a passion for science) join us one day, our science-loving intern for two days, and our MO Conservation partner join us for all 3! All adults are expected to notebook right along with the kids so that they can model what their idea of note-booking is.

*Get/Make Notebooks: This is our "practice day" so we don't use our actual notebooks for our immersion experience. Usually I take the green route and cut out unused pages of old notebooks (kids that moved, old samples, etc) to use. I grab 5 sheets, fold them in half, staple down the middle, and make mini-notebooks for the day. I find these are less daunting since the pages are smaller. However, this year our MO Conservation partner brought us notebooks to use. Some pages were blank, some had half a page that was blank with the other half lined, and some had preset tables. This allowed kids to see some different opportunities right off the bat, which was good too. I'm not sure that one is better than the other so choose what works best for you. :) I would recommend NOT using your "regular" notebooks though while kids are trying things out. They like to start fresh in their "real" notebooks after they've gone through this day and have a better idea of what note-booking looks like.

*Plan for your groups: It is ideal to have groups of 4-5 students note-booking with an adult in the same area, but not necessarily "together". We encourage our kids to explore anything that peaks their interest, and notebook about it. We don't tell them what that means, but we do ask leading questions such as - "How could you show that in your notebook?", "What is the most interesting thing you notice?", "Is there another way that we could do that?" Basically our goal is for the class to come up with as many ways as possible to use our notebooks. (The list of what our kids came up with can be found later on the page...).

*Rotate groups throughout the day: Since everyone notebooks differently based on what they experience, how their brain organizes information, and how they are feeling that day it makes sense to rotate adults around the groups so that each group gets to experience each adult's method. They may see one who does amazing technical drawings, one that organizes information into tables, one that lists a lot of wonderings, etc.

*Plan your schedule: Schedule several small sessions throughout the day in different areas so kids have a new adventure awaiting them each place they go! Be sure to consider things like practice drills, assemblies, etc. that might be planned by the school!
       Here's our schedule:
     9:00 - Introduction, Schedule, Norms
     9:30 - Tornado Drill (School Plan)
     9:40 - Garden Experience
     10:25 - Notebook Gallery Walk/I-Noticed
     10:45 - Snack/Revision Opportunity
     10:55 - Park Experience
     11:40 - Partner Notebook Share/Add to I-Noticed List
     11:50 - What Makes a Good Notebook? (Look at past students' notebooks, famous scientists', etc.)
     12:15 - Recess/Lunch
     12:15 - Group Share
     1:05 - Technical Drawings (detailed drawings rather than sketches - think art meets science)
     1:50 - Fish Experience
     2:40 - Wrap-Up

*Share, Share, Share!: The most important part of the day is to find out how students used their notebooks - provide lots of opportunities for them to share throughout the day whether it's with a partner, with a small group, or as a whole class.

*Notebook Examples: Consider having some examples of notebooks available for the groups to explore after they've had some time to find some things out themselves. You can find a lot of ways to use a notebook in a few hours, but imagine how much time Ben Franklin, Leonardo DiVinci, and Benjamin Banneker spent writing in their notebooks. They can learn from the experts too! You might even be able to save a few notebooks over the years from students to use. (Our kids actually use their same notebook for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade so our samples come from students who moved in the summer if we didn't know to send their notebooks ahead of time.)

*Prepare to Find the Unexpected: Kids are amazing at finding everything you don't know and have never seen. This year we found squirrel bones under a tree in some sort of den, two Cooper's Hawks trapping a squirrel in a tree, and an amazing caterpillar (soon to be a swallowtail).

Squirrel Remains

Caterpillar on Brick Wall

Here's what some of the notebooks looked like from parts of the day. Keep in mind this is a work in progress - the important part is the variety of ways in which students recorded their experience. :)



Our "I Noticed" List - Not bad for a day's work!

• drawings
• labels
• lists
• sentences
• use of senses (smell, sound, sight, touch)
• tally marks
• math
• tables
• rubbings
• collected items taped in
• page sections
• date
• map/key
• questions
• measurements
• magnified pictures
• chart
• headings/titles
• page numbers
• index
• table of contents
• high-lighting
• bold/large font
• taped in papers
• color-coding
• tabs
• underlining
• calendar
• checklist
• Chinese writing (Yes, students can write in their native tongue)
• focus questions
• procedures
• comparisons
• reflections

Obviously the kids will not be experts after 1 day, BUT they do seem to feel pretty confident in what they can do in their notebooks to show their thinking. Over the next several class periods we'll go over the logistics of what's expected, where the notebooks are stored, taking care of the notebooks, etc. Check back in a few days to see where we go from here, and let me know if you need anything clarified! I tried to keep it short(ish), but keep in mind this is a full day's worth, and I can talk (type) for hours! :D

Happy Science!