Personalizing Science Notebooks

The original premise for creating science notebooks was to have students learn by making their learning experience more personalized. The authors of this article focus on the idea of develo... See More

The original premise for creating science notebooks was to have students learn by making their learning experience more personalized. The authors of this article focus on the idea of developing student-centered notebooks based on classroom observations and experiences. They point out that it is important to make time for the notebooks as well as facilitating ownership. There is a good sample of a notebook page. A short discussion is included on whether to assess these notebooks or not. This is a good article for someone wanting to engage students in their own learning.

Points out Essential Strategies

I really enjoyed the ideas presented in this article. We want kids to inquire and construct their own understanding of concepts, and this article gives ideas for how to do this using studen... See More

I really enjoyed the ideas presented in this article. We want kids to inquire and construct their own understanding of concepts, and this article gives ideas for how to do this using student notebooks. I especially enjoyed the emphasis on teaching kids how to record in their notebooks. This skill (choosing what strategies are used to record their information) needs to be discussed and taught over and over so they can analyze best when and how to use recording and organizational strategies.