Science Notebook

Join Teachers.Net

Chatboards

Recent Groups

Science

MEMBERS

14 Members

+ Join Group

Pinned Posts

ALLAll Teachers

Teachers.Net LIVE CHAT Support group - Tues eve!

Featured Jobs

Full-timeMontessori Teacher

Maple Ridge, British Columbia, Canada

TemporaryTeachers, rural schools

Peace River North School District

Full-timeHead Teacher: 2nd/3rd Grades – Mills College Children’s School

Mills College

Teaching Jobs on Teachers.Net

Featured Job special only $39!

https://teachers.net/jobs

Become a Teachers.Net sponsor!

Science Teachers Chatboard

Science Notebook

by lori

Jun 20, 2012

lease share some of your science notebooking ideas. Do you have a hard time keeping the table of content up? Do you have a main table of content page and then a table of content page for each unit?

I used the notebook last year, but I want to up the student involvement for next year. Last year, we abandoned the left page/ rignt side idea. The students had a hard time with reflecting. I guess I needed to model more and be more consistent.

lori

Comment

(7)

report post

view previous comments

hsteach I am a fan of notebooks for science class. I follow a very formal notebook system with my high school freshmen (not honors classes though). I do not have any particular involvement for the students with the notebook itself rather than what would be expected from the assignments themselves, so I do not know if this is what you want. If I want them t...See MoreI am a fan of notebooks for science class. I follow a very formal notebook system with my high school freshmen (not honors classes though). I do not have any particular involvement for the students with the notebook itself rather than what would be expected from the assignments themselves, so I do not know if this is what you want. If I want them to reflect or summarize or make up possible questions, I simply assign that task.

I advise them to keep sections: BASICS for general classroom stuff, START UPS for bellringers, UNIT WORK (this is where everything we might do in class goes: notes, worksheets, labwork, activities), QUIZZES, PROGRESS REPORTS (the ones I give intermittently).

I start every unit with an objectives sheet copied on colored paper. This gives a visual cue as to where to turn for current material as well as stating what is expected to be learned. I assign a number to this and to every page to be placed in the UNIT WORK section of the notebook. I keep a running list of these on the whiteboard in the classroom. I grade the notebook early on when only about 10 UNIT WORK pages have been given. This is important to catch the "organizationally challenged." I really have to get on those students and am usually able to get them on board. When I check the notebook, I am only checking that the UNIT WORK section is in order, not that the work is done. The only exception is if a page the student was to create (notes or graphic organizer, for example) is greatly shortened from what was expected. Some pages are collected and graded separately. When returned, each should go back into the right place in the notebook since it was numbered. This process accomplishes the objective you stated, that you want students to be able to find specific items in their notebooks. After that first check of the notebook, I check at the time of the first test and then less frequently, like every other test. I typically can get all notebooks checked at that time. Benefits to this process: 1. This process accomplishes the objective you stated, that you want students to be able to find specific items in their notebooks. 2. Students learn organizational skills useful with other subjects. 3. It should be obvious to a student that they have missed something. (I keep a typed log of what we do each day in the classroom, and seatmates are to collect any handouts which are then placed in a folder marked with the absent student's name. 4. I ask that the notebook for the entire year be turned in at the time of the final exam. This would be useful if a parent where to question a student's performance (not happened as of yet) or if you need to maintain a portfolio and keeps work done in my class from being passed on to friends or siblings.

The challenges of this: 1. Some students will refuse or are unable to provide a binder (although I always have many old ones on hand to give out). As a result, I allow folders or stacks of papers with rubber bands, etc. 2. Everything I pass out is hole punched. Not a big deal to me, and I am shocked at the amount of papers students have from other classes which are given to them without holes. 3. Everything has to have some sort of a title that is distinct from other items in the notebook, so I can list it as such. 4. Everything has to have a number. Other teachers tell me they just cannot do this, but I have never found it to be a challenge. 5. Some students just refuse to do this. Only rarely are those students successful in other aspects of the class. 6. Some students chose to order like a book from 1 on and others like to put the most recent on top. I let them pick. 7. You really have to model this: especially putting the number in the upper right corner of the page, and never leaving the room with any loose papers. 8. Grading them is boring but really does not take much time when you get in the groove. I used to give out a slip with every item listed on it, but some students did not organize until I gave the slip. Now I just have a few copies available for use during remediation. Keeping the list on the board works well. It is possible to give notebook quizzes (with things like: turn to page #63 and write down the question and answer to number 7; or give a content question from a particular page. I prefer to just give quizzes which allow notebooks to be used as quizzes and not as notebook checks. 9. I have only noticed one event of cheating among hundreds of student notebooks. A student borrowed the papers from another student and turned them in as his own. The other student never turned in her notebook despite me asking her to do so even when I told her to get her papers back from the other student. Hope this helps! On 6/20/12, lori wrote: > Please share some of your science notebooking ideas. Do > you have a hard time keeping the table of content up? Do > you have a main table of content page and then a table of > content page for each unit? > > I used the notebook last year, but I want to up the student > involvement for next year. Last year, we abandoned the left > page/ rignt side idea. The students had a hard time with > reflecting. I guess I needed to model more and be more > consistent. > > lori

Jun 28, 2012

report post

AW Thanks for coming up with the post. A couple questions first:

Bill -- do you have any trouble with the papers falling out of the journal using glue sticks?

-- how do you help the absent student keep their journal in chronological order? (Say for instance they have been out three days. They come to class. Do you have them skip a ce...See MoreThanks for coming up with the post. A couple questions first:

Bill -- do you have any trouble with the papers falling out of the journal using glue sticks?

-- how do you help the absent student keep their journal in chronological order? (Say for instance they have been out three days. They come to class. Do you have them skip a certain amount of pages or do they just continue where they left off and then add the missing work on the day that they come in to make-up the work?

-- I do gradesheets too, but I don't have them glue it in their journal. I am assuming since you do this that you have not had a lot of lost gradesheets? (Maybe I will try this.)

-- you mentioned that you check over their journal once a week...How many students do you have? I think that I would be going crazy with 150 journals to collect and then return the next day. Do your students take their journals with them or leave them in your room?

Also....you provide your students with a progress report. Do parents not have access to see the students grades on-line? If they do, you still do this?

To 5th grade class

-- I started the year by printing up a table of contents for each student, then about mid-year started keeping a list on my board so that it became a student responsibility. So this way students had to complete the table of contents to get credit on their gradesheet. I use a gradesheet to take grades from papers, writing, sketches, etc. in the journal about every two weeks. Some of the work is graded as a class; student completion stamped work (which means that it is their responsibility to make corrections when we go over it, but it gets a stamp for completion); stamped sketches, returned graded sheets that are put in the journal, etc. The student completes the gradesheet (signed by parent) and turns it into me. This way the parent is looking at the child's journal as well.

-- The journal is also used to study for tests and can on occasion be used to answer bonus questions for a test. (They turn in the test and then use the journal to answer a bonus question.)

-- You mentioned about a messy student that may need to start a new journal mid-year. How many journals do you go through in a year? My students go through at least 2, some years 3. We are all on the same page (using front and backs) I agree about not spending hours grading journals.

I keep my own journal so that if a student is absent they can look at mine (on their own time).

Jun 30, 2012

report post

muinteoir I'm a fan of notebooking for many reasons.

My students used their journals every day. It was part of our daily start-of-class procedures. I had each child keep a science notebook in a composition book. They lasted longer than spirals. Each class period had a tub where the journals were stored.

Students came into the classroom, p...See MoreI'm a fan of notebooking for many reasons.

My students used their journals every day. It was part of our daily start-of-class procedures. I had each child keep a science notebook in a composition book. They lasted longer than spirals. Each class period had a tub where the journals were stored.

Students came into the classroom, picked up their journal and wrote and answered the warm up question that was projected for them in it. After I had checked attendance and so on, I projected a possible answer to the question. We would spend about three minutes (max) reviewing the question and kids could make any changes to their answers they needed or wanted.

After that, the kids put the journals on the corner of their table; we didn't use them every day, but they were always handy when we did.

The journals were used for different things. *notes (rarely) *drawings and diagrams; sometimes photos *graphic organizers *reflections (frequently) *long-term data collections (especially qualitative data) *foldables (seldom) *realia

I kept a journal along with the kids When someone was absent, mine was available to help fill the missing parts of theirs. I asked them to date each entry, so it wasn't too hard to keep up.

I was never very successful having them keep table of contents. I stopped worrying about it. It wasn't a sword I wanted to fall on. I kept one though.

To assess the journals, I would grab a few each class period and flip through them, as I had time. I would also assess a few every day during my conference or after school. I always tried to leave very specific feedback, never grades, for the kids. Sometimes I looked at very specific entries, sometimes random ones. I marked the pages I reviewed with a sticky note. Often I wrote on the sticky note too.this served two purposes. 1) I knew which journals I had looked at, and which still needed my attention. 2) It signaled that there was feedback for the kids. I could usually get through every journal in a week. On Mondays, kids could remove the stickies, and put them on the page that I reviewed. This way There weren't lots of them sticking out, confusing everyone. I also used a different color every week, just to keep things organized for me. I'm kinda anal that way.

I never used anything in the journals for an actual grade. All graded work was done on separate paper.

At the end of each marking period, we had a journal test. It covered material in the journal. They could use the journal on the test. This added incentive to keep the journals up-to- date.

After the test, the kids folded the last page in half, and we started new on a fresh sheet.

I love the website I've linked below, maybe it can help you too.

On 6/20/12, lori wrote: > Please share some of your science notebooking ideas. Do > you have a hard time keeping the table of content up? Do > you have a main table of content page and then a table of > content page for each unit? > > I used the notebook last year, but I want to up the student > involvement for next year. Last year, we abandoned the left > page/ rignt side idea. The students had a hard time with > reflecting. I guess I needed to model more and be more > consistent. > > lori

Jul 1, 2012

report post

Bill T 6 nc On 6/30/12, AW wrote: > Thanks for coming up with the post. A couple questions first: > > Bill -- do you have any trouble with the papers falling out of > the journal using glue sticks?

****************************************************************** that is a problem occasionally, but not that much. The glue sticks seem to d...See MoreOn 6/30/12, AW wrote: > Thanks for coming up with the post. A couple questions first: > > Bill -- do you have any trouble with the papers falling out of > the journal using glue sticks?

****************************************************************** that is a problem occasionally, but not that much. The glue sticks seem to do a fairly good job at keeping papers in the notebooks

> > -- how do you help the absent student keep their journal > in chronological order? (Say for instance they have been out > three days. They come to class. Do you have them skip a > certain amount of pages or do they just continue where they > left off and then add the missing work on the day that they > come in to make-up the work? **************************************************************** I have students pick up where they left off. All assignments and activities are written on the wall chart I mentioned. Also, I tried to note whenever a student is out in their notebook. This is the one occasion when I am not concerned about chronological order. > > -- I do gradesheets too, but I don't have them glue it in > their journal. I am assuming since you do this that you have > not had a lot of lost gradesheets? (Maybe I will try this.) ****************************************************************> the problem isn't that common

> -- you mentioned that you check over their journal once a > week...How many students do you have? I think that I would be > going crazy with 150 journals to collect and then return the > next day. Do your students take their journals with them or > leave them in your room? *************************************************************** Last year I had 80 students. I don't grade all notebooks the same day, but look to stagger them over a few days. Students have the option of taking their notebooks with them, but most do not, choosing instead to leave them in the class box to be given out the next day > > Also....you provide your students with a progress report. Do > parents not have access to see the students grades on-line? If > they do, you still do this? > *************************************************************** The grading program we use does not, as of yet, permit parents to view student grades on line. That is supposed to happen in the future. >

My notebook system is a work in progress. LOL! Nothing works 100%, all of the time, particularly with 6th graders.

Jul 3, 2012

report post

5th grade science notebook ideas You asked, You mentioned about a messy student that may need to start a new journal mid-year. How many journals do you go through in a year?

In fifth grade, we generally use one 80 page wide ruled spiral per year. As I mentioned, there are a few (very few) students who need to start a new journal mid year. Those are the kids that are so me...See MoreYou asked, You mentioned about a messy student that may need to start a new journal mid-year. How many journals do you go through in a year?

In fifth grade, we generally use one 80 page wide ruled spiral per year. As I mentioned, there are a few (very few) students who need to start a new journal mid year. Those are the kids that are so messy, by mid year the cover is missing, the journal is falling apart....I give them the option of a fresh start. I don't see the harm in offering that option because their previous notebook was not an example of organization. It is usually not more than one or two per class that might exercise this option, and if they want to just start a new notebook, I often hand them a new spiral out of my closet. These are the few kids that need a teacher's helping hand to lift them up a bit! In fifth grade, some kids mature a lot over the course of the year! Anyway, I maintain strict guidelines, but there are always a few kids that need more support as they are struggling to mature in study skills. The whole point of the notebook in the first place is to offer the student the chance to develop and grow in the area of organization!

n 6/30/12, AW wrote: > Thanks for coming up with the post. A couple questions first: > > Bill -- do you have any trouble with the papers falling out of > the journal using glue sticks? > > -- how do you help the absent student keep their journal > in chronological order? (Say for instance they have been out > three days. They come to class. Do you have them skip a > certain amount of pages or do they just continue where they > left off and then add the missing work on the day that they > come in to make-up the work? > > -- I do gradesheets too, but I don't have them glue it in > their journal. I am assuming since you do this that you have > not had a lot of lost gradesheets? (Maybe I will try this.) > > -- you mentioned that you check over their journal once a > week...How many students do you have? I think that I would be > going crazy with 150 journals to collect and then return the > next day. Do your students take their journals with them or > leave them in your room? > > Also....you provide your students with a progress report. Do > parents not have access to see the students grades on-line? If > they do, you still do this? > > To 5th grade class > > -- I started the year by printing up a table of contents for > each student, then about mid-year started keeping a list on my > board so that it became a student responsibility. So this way > students had to complete the table of contents to get credit on > their gradesheet. I use a gradesheet to take grades from > papers, writing, sketches, etc. in the journal about every two > weeks. Some of the work is graded as a class; student > completion stamped work (which means that it is their > responsibility to make corrections when we go over it, but it > gets a stamp for completion); stamped sketches, returned graded > sheets that are put in the journal, etc. The student completes > the gradesheet (signed by parent) and turns it into me. This > way the parent is looking at the child's journal as well. > > -- The journal is also used to study for tests and can on > occasion be used to answer bonus questions for a test. (They > turn in the test and then use the journal to answer a bonus > question.) > > -- You mentioned about a messy student that may need to start > a new journal mid-year. How many journals do you go through in > a year? My students go through at least 2, some years 3. We > are all on the same page (using front and backs) I agree about > not spending hours grading journals. > > I keep my own journal so that if a student is absent they can > look at mine (on their own time).

Jul 25, 2012

report post