What is the
Interactive
Notebook?
Interactive Notebook
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Allows students to record information about
history in an engaging way. They can…
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Transform written concepts into visuals
Find main points of a political cartoon
Organize historical events into a topical map
Draw whatever illustration that makes sense to
them
Personalize the historic event
Interactive Notebooks…
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Organize the student
Help students sequence assignments
Encourage pride in student work
Facilitate cooperative interaction
Appeal to multiple intelligences
Provide opportunities to spiral instruction and
facilitate learning
Many student notebooks are
drab repositories of information
filled with uninspired,
unconnected, and poorly
understood ideas.
Interactive Notebooks…
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Are colorful with diagrams, bullets and arrows
Are in pencil and crayon
Are presented in a unique, personal style
Key ideas are underlined in color or highlighted
Venn diagrams show relationships
Cartoon sketches show people and events
Timelines illustrate chronology
Arrows show relationships
Interactive Notebooks Require
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Recording history in an engaging way
Use several types of writing and innovative graphic
techniques to record history
Force students to process these ideas
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They might transform written concepts into visuals
Find the main idea of a political cartoon
Use a graphic organizer to place historic events in a relational
way
Encourage the use of critical thinking and be more creative,
independent thinkers
What students need…
Notebook, pencil,
colored markers or
crayons, highlighters
 They might use scissors,
glue stick, and more
colored pens
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Interactive Notebooks
encourage
Notes to be organized
 Logically ordered
 Information processing in the student’s
brain
 Better understanding of history
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Interactive Notebook
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Output
Input
On the right side record your notes
in normal way—teacher input side
On the left side—student output side
 Translate your note material into
a
 Drawing
 Graphic
organizer
 Mind map
 Picture sentence
Right Side/Left Side
Left Side
Students Process
New Ideas
Reorganize
new info in
creative formats
Express opinions and
feelings
Explore new ideas
Creative Side
Right Side
Teacher Provides New
Info
Class
Notes
Discussion Notes
Reading Notes
Handouts with new info
Structured Side
Right Side
Opportunity for teacher to model for
students how to think graphically
 Teacher organizes the common set of
information that all students must know
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Left Side
Requires students to process information
 Requires students to actively do something
with the information to internalize it
 Gives students permission to be playful,
imaginative, experimental, creative
 Allows various learning styles to process
information
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Sample
What can go in it????
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Anything
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Drawings
Poetry
Raps
Graphic organizers
Cartoons
Maps
Charts and graphs
Invitations
Letters from famous people
Let your
imagination
go!!!
Be creative!
Why Interactive Notebooks?
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Students use both their visual and
linguistic intelligences
Approach understanding in many ways
 Use many types of writing and graphic
techniques
 Each student can select their best medium to
explore and learn new content
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Why Interactive Notebooks?
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Note taking becomes an active process
Students are invited to take notes—it’s fun!
 Students will read their notes—they have to in
order to process for the left side
 Students will be working with (rehearsing) the
information which facilitates learning
 Students will actively be involved with history
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Why Interactive Notebooks?
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Notebooks help students to systematically
organize as they learn
Organization is key to the notebook
 Concepts like
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 Table
of Contents
 Numbering pages
 Recording SOL numbers
 Topic headings
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They stress the organization of a book
Why Interactive Notebooks?
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Notebooks become a portfolio of individual
learning
These are personal
 Creative
 They record student growth in history
 They show progress
 They serve as a chronological record of the
learning and are great for review
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Examples from History Alive!
Mosaic
Poem
Historical Caricature
Pictowords
Silhouette—Mind
Notes
Annotated Slides
Annotated Illustrations
Provocative
Statements--opinions
T-charts
Tables
Illustrated Outlines
Illustrated Dictionaries
Facial Expressions
Report Cards
Postcards
Wheels
Flow Charts
Eulogies
Illustrated
Timelines
Perspectives
Charts and Graphs
Mosaics
CD Covers
Posters
Book Covers
Collages
Annotated Maps
Advertisements
Invitations
Cartoons or Comic
Strips
Historical
Journals
Sources
History Alive. Interactive Notebook. Palo
Alto: Teachers’ Curriculum Press. 1999.
 History Alive. Six Powerful Teaching
Strategies. Palo Alto: Teachers’
Curriculum Press. 1999.
 History Alive Website.
http://www.historyalive.com
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