I was introduced to Interactive Notebooks (IN's) during one of my graduate courses. No, these are not journals (though this could be a part of them if you decided). They are notebooks, and they are interactive. Let me explain.
An IN is the student's resource for the class. I intend to use them in my classroom as a replacement for the textbook. All notes, hand-outs, activities, etc. can be found within the IN. This also means that the IN takes a great deal of planning and forethought as to how you want to use it.
Item 1: What materials should you use? The most common options are 3-ring binders or composition books. There are pros and cons to each. A 3-ring binder provides flexibility - things can be added, removed, and rearranged within the binder with ease. However, they can break and students are often don't insert pages securely (or at all), and they can get ripped out. Not to mention those pesky rings inevitably stop lining up after a while. Composition books are durable and easier to store (particularly if you want your students to keep their notebooks in class), but you have a finite amount of pages. In addition, hand-outs aren't inserted as easily - they will either need to be taped or glued in. Items you put into the notebook and how they are inserted (hand outs, foldable's, etc.) will be determine by which materials you use. Ultimately, you must decide what works for you and your students.
Item 2: What goes in the notebook?
Are students just going to use their notebooks for notes? Or (and this is where it gets fun) is it going to be a comprehensive resource for your class? Things to include in notebooks could be notes (obviously), the syllabus, instructions for calculating their grade, homework and other assignments, study helps, hand-outs.... The sky is the limit! I plan for my students to use this as a comprehensive resource in my class in which everything is included (this is also facilitated by my homework and grading policy). One of the most unique features of my classroom's IN's will be my class standards (see my posts standard-based grading) and a graph on which students record their progress in meeting these standards. Tests will also be inserted into the notebook and any feedback (whether from me or from self-evaluations) will be recorded. This is what makes this more than just an ordinary notebook - the IN is a living document of student experience, learning, and achievement.
Item 3: What sections do you need?
What are the main things your students are going to need to do and how much space will they take up? The IN I created for student-teaching contains sections for Lesson Plans, Classroom Management, TPR/TPRS, and "Other". My "Lesson Plans" and "TPR/TPRS" sections claim the majority of the pages in my notebook, followed by "Classroom Management" and finally "Other" in a logical order. In my Spanish class, I currently plan to have tabs for Vocabulary, Structures, Reading/Listening, Writing/Speaking Culture, and Bell Ringers. I plan to use a composition book. Students can make tabs from the fancy page tabs used on books or do something as simple as using tape or folding the page over.
Item 4: Are students going to take these home or leave them in class?
This will likely influence what you're going to put in the notebooks and how you are going to use them. A friend of mine teaches Theater and absolutely loves using these. Students are required to keep their notebooks in the classroom and are only allowed to take them home prior to a final exam. Because my classroom model involves constant studying and reviewing, I plan to have students keep their notebooks to use as a resource at home, but they must not forget to bring it to class, either. I will need to emphasize how important it is to always have this resource with them (this is another reason I like composition books - it emphasizes the importance of keeping their notes and other resources with them since the pages are attached to the book itself).
The end result is that students have created a textbook that is customized for the class and personalized to them. I intend for these to be used not just in Spanish 1, but throughout the years that students study in my class. This means that students in Spanish 4 could still refer to the notebooks they created in Spanish 1, 2, and 3 because they were designed in a way that is still useful beyond one isolated class.
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