This was my first year using the ISN, and here is my experience:
I used composition books, which I liked. Most used only 1, but I plan
to use it more next year, so I will ask for 2. My kids were MUCH
better organized and I only had a couple lost ones. I just had them
start over in a new one from the beginning of that unit.
I had the parents who were willing donate tape and we taped things in.
ANother teacher stapled. I was afraid glue would all stick together. I
did have to give several lectures on taping only the books, not each
other!
I allowed a maximum # of pages for the assignment, and then asked them
to use separate paper and tape it in if they needed more room.
However, the 5a, 5b, etc idea I think is better.
I didnt manage the left side/right side well. I ended up just using
whatever page was next for the interactive assignment. This worked
well for me for 7th grade. I would save a couple pages for the unit
warm-ups at the beginning and go from there.
We did a lot of vocab work, acrostics and word webs/concept maps. I
would love to hear others ideas on the type of interactive assignments
they used!
