Give Your Students a Voice With Interactive Notebooks Interactive Notebooks will change the way your students organize their thoughts, show creativity and express their knowledge of a subject. Using Interactive Notebooks, your students will have a significant decrease in lost papers and a more personalized education. Though this session is directed towards Science, Interactive Notebooks are easily adaptable for other subjects. Presenter: Catie DiVito - Broad Creek Middle School - Newport, NC

1. Left hand pages (Sinker):
Here are basic instructions for several different Out activities. Not every activity will be appropriate for
every lesson. You are not limited to just the activities on this list. It is just a starting point.
1. Comic Strip (6 points, max: 1 comic strip).
A comic strip is an illustrated summary:
a. Separate your page with 8 panels.
● At the top or bottom of each panel, write your caption. Your caption should be at least
one complete sentence and explain the action in your illustration.
● Above or below the caption, draw your illustration. This should be appropriate,
meaningful, and colorful.
● When you are finished, your comic should be a detailed description of information from
class discussion.
2. Hero or Wanted Poster (4 points, max: 1 poster).
You must:
a. Create a drawing of the person or thing required.
b. Include four sentences why that person is a hero, why that person is wanted, or why that
object/thing is necessary. These must be facts, not feelings.
c. Remember that whether someone is a hero or wanted depends on your perspective!
d. Use full color for your drawing
3. Chart or Graph (4 points, max: 2 charts or graphs)
You must:
a. Create a chart for the information required. You may use any format (i.e. Venn diagram, T-
chart, Concept Map, Flow Chart, Bar Graph, KWL chart, Mind Map)
b. include the required information, including a brief description if necessary
c. Create your own, not copy one from a book/website.
4. Advertisement, Book/Magazine Cover (4 points, max: 1 ad, book/mag. cover)
You must:
a. Create a color product that includes all required information.
b. remember that an advertisement is designed to convince people that the idea or product is a
MUST HAVE
c. Include at least 3 significant reasons (in complete sentences) that the idea or product is a MUST
HAVE

2. 5. Invitation (2 points, max: 1 invitation)
You must include:
a. date (beginning and ending),
b. place,
c. what will be accomplished,
d. who has been invited,
e. Include a bold title, a catchy statement to entice people to attend and other creative touches.
f. Purposeful and neat color
6. Biographical Poem (3 points, max: 1 poem)
Include the following information for the topic assigned:
Line 1: First Name
Line 2: Four adjectives
Line 3: Relative (son of, wife of, husband of, etc.)
Line 4: Resident of (city and/or country)
Line 5: Who needs…
Line 6: Who searched for…
Line 7: Who taught…
Line 8: Who fears/is challenged by…
Line 9: Who is remembered for…
Line 10: One personal opinion about him/her
Line 11: Last Name
7. Haiku (1 point, max: 5 poems)
Haiku is a minimalist, contemplative, poetry from Japan that focuses on nature, color, season,
contrasts, and surprises. Usually it has 3 lines and 17 syllables distributed in a 5, 7, and 5
syllable pattern. It should show a sensation, impression or drama of a specific fact or concept.
17 syllables total:
5 syllables in the first line
7 syllables in the second line
5 syllables in the third line.
8. Illustrated Timeline (3 points, max: 1 timeline)
You must:
a. put events into chronological order.
b. draw a picture showing the events
c. write a short explanation for each picture
d. include color

3. 9. Song Lyrics (3 points, 5 if performed/recorded. Max: 1 song)
The purpose of this activity is to help students who can learn things through music further
understand concepts covered in class. The lyrics need to be to the tune of a known song (Row,
Row, Row Your Boat; Twinkle, Twinkle; songs on popular radio). The lyrics should reflect several
aspects of the topic being covered, not just nonsense using terms from the section/lesson.
10. Visualization (3 points. Max: 3 words)
a. This can be as simple as a picture used to depict the topic/event/person we covered in class or
it can be more complex and abstract.
b. Must not be a drawing already in the student’s notebook.
c. Be sure to include a brief description of how the picture relates to the topic. It is very easy to
forget why you drew something three weeks after you drew it.
11. Mnemonic (2 points, max: 2 mnemonics)
Mnemonic devices are ways to remember a list of items, such as the planets: Mercury, Venus,
Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto can be remembered by the Mnemonic, My
Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Nine Pickles
12. Definition Poem (3 points, max: 2 poems)
Line 1: Name it
Line 2: Describe it
Line 3: Tell where it would be found
Line 4: Tell more about it (here you must use facts from the research you read, not just what you
think)
Line 5: Use emotion words to tell how you feel about this
Line 6: Explain why you used the emotion words on line 5
13. Current Event (10 points, max: 1 current event)
The article must be from a reputable news source: newspaper, magazine, online newspaper or
magazine, etc. and must pertain to the subject we were covering. The article should be
stapled/taped/glued onto the LEFT HAND page of your journal.
Below the article you should include:
a. At least one paragraph to summarize the article
b. At least one paragraph describing how the article relates to our current discussion

4. 14. V3 – Verbal, Visual Vocabulary! (1 point per word, max: 5 words)
a. Choose any word from your vocabulary list that you think you need to practice.
b. For each word, you will fill out a chart like this:
VOCABULARY WORD DEFINITION
SENTENCE/FACT PICTURE
15. Acrostic Poems (2 points per word/term, max: 3 words )
Directions: Write the name of the person or the concept to be defined vertically, like this:
N C E
A O V
M N E
E C N
E T
P
T
Write a sentence about the subject for each letter of its title.
16. Letter (4 points, max: 1 letter)
a. Write a letter to the (fictional) editor of a local newspaper concerning an issue discussed in class.
This activity lends itself to disputed topics such as: air pollution, human health, diet, genetic
research, DNA fingerprinting, storm safety, etc.
-OR-
b. Write a letter to a (fictional or real) absent student describing the information we covered in class
that day. Be sure to discuss how that information is related to previous study, give examples, and
possibly use illustrations to help them understand the material.
17. Section Review Questions (4 points, max: 1 set of questions)
a. Occasionally you may be asked or want to go to the chapter in the textbook we are studying to
review material. Your Out activity can be to answer the questions from the Section Review.
b. When doing section review questions, please answer all questions in complete sentences.
c. All questions should be attempted.
d. Please ask in class the next day if there are questions you were unable to answer.

5. 18. Verify Class Information: (10 points, max: 1 verification)
a. Looking over the information discussed in class, try to find online or text citations for
information presented in class.
b. Print out or copy quotes that support our class discussion. Give proper credit to the source of
these quotations.
c. Summarize information that you find which conflicts with what we discussed in class. Give
proper credit to the source of these quotations.
19. Text or Tweet Summaries (2 point, max: 2 texts/ tweets/ statuses)
a. Summarize today’s class information in 2 to 3 text messages or Status Update.
b. Text Message – can have 160 characters, may use txt shrthnd 2 get ur point across
20. Design a Test/Quiz w/ answer key (1 point/ question, max: 10 questions)
Maximum of each type of question allowed for each sinker:
● 2- True False
● 3- Multiple Choice
● 3- Fill in the blank
● 4- Short Answer
● 4- Label/Describe/draw a diagram
21. Foldable (5 points, max: 1 foldable)
You may choose to design your own or one of the foldables we have completed together.
This might include vocabulary, pictures, or other information discussed on the topic.
22. Shrinking Notes (4 points, max: 1 set of summaries)
This is a form of summarizing.
You will need to:
a. glue a whole 4”x6” index card to the top of your paper. Summarize the lesson to fit onto that
4”6” index card.
b. Cut an index card in half and glue it under the first index card. Summarize the lesson to fit on
this index card (4”x3”)
c. Cut an index card in quarters and glue ¼ under the second index card. Summarize the lesson to
fit on this index card. This card does not require full sentences.
The challenge is that you have to make the summary short and to the point but still include all of
the important details.