After reading a science fiction short story, students need to obtain a one subject composition book. The binding on this type of book is much easier to work with than a spiral bound notebook. About one quarter to one third of the pages will need to be carefully removed, to be reserved for use as lift-flap strips, hidden panels, column panels, or pocket pages. Glue is also needed for this project. While interactive notebooks require careful planning on the part of the teacher, they are well worth the effort. Students will then use the first half of the remaining notebook to map out the story they have read. In doing this, students will develop note-taking skills while they learn to identify the elements of a story which unify it into one coherent theme. By taking notes in an interactive notebook, students must break down information into smaller chunks, and will present it in a fun, hands-on, visually interesting and organized way.
Types of Interactive Notebook Pages
Question and Answer strips: These are horizontally cut strips which are glued to the notebook page along the left margin of a right hand page. Students can look for details in the stories they have read, and create trivia questions on the top strips. After gluing down the question strip, the student then raises this paper strip to reveal the answer, which is written directly underneath. To make the strips, use a right hand page. If there are five questions to be answered, five horizontal strips will be needed. Remember to leave room for longer questions and answers. Glue the top strip to the page behind it, only on the left margin. Remember to write the question on top, and the correct answer underneath. Students will enjoy quizzing each other with their trivia!
Hidden Panels: These panels are great for recording cause and effect, but can be used for other story elements. In the story summarized above, the cause would be when Laurel recounted the tale of her cousin, Juliana, who had herself cloned in order to become a parent. The effect would be that Mrs. Noll learned about cloning, and began to think about cloning as a viable option for her own condition. To make a hidden panels with a flap at the bottom, cut vertically along the inside margin, about halfway up an empty page. Fold this page up so that its bottom edge meets the top edge, and make a crease along the fold. Glue this top page to the page behind it, and when the glue is dry, write the cause of an event on the top page, and its effect underneath. Encourage students to make predictions about story outcomes as they read the interactive notebooks of other students.
Column Panels: These interactive pages are good for comparing and contrasting information, and for sequencing events in a story. In "Flourish Your Heart in This World," Laurel and her cousin, Juliana, were quite different. Column panels would be perfect for contrasting the practically perfect, beautiful, and highly successful Juliana, with warm, caring, down to earth Laurel, who led a much more quiet life. To make a column panel, fold a right-hand page in half vertically, bringing the outside edge in to meet the inside margin, and crease. The left-hand portion of this page becomes the inside panel, and is now glued to the page behind it. The front of the left-hand column is panel #1, the right-hand front column is panel #2, the back left-hand column is panel #3, and the remaining column, created from the right-hand half of the next page, is panel #4. In making interactive notebooks, students will usually not be using the back sides of pages.
Double Page Spreads: If students have a lot of information on one topic or story element, or if they want to include illustrations, they might want to try double page spreads. To make a two-page spread, tape the right-hand edges of two clean pages together. Then cut along the left margin of the top page, which allows it to be folded out, revealing an interior double page spread. To make a four page spread, tape two sets of double pages together, with one to the left of the center of the book and one to the right. Cut carefully along the right margin of the left set of taped pages, and along the left margin of the right set of taped pages. As each set of pages is opened from the middle, a four-page spread is created.
Pocket Pages: By adding pockets to their interactive notebooks, students will have a place to store supplementary materials, such as cut out magazine pictures for idea making, letters written by story characters, and mock trinkets created to give extra life their note-taking projects. To make a pocket page, cut along the left margin of a clean sheet, clipping halfway down. Fold this piece down until it meets the bottom and crease. Then cut along the crease, leaving a one-half sheet in the book. Tape the side and bottom edges of this sheet to the one behind it, thus creating the pocket. As students move into the writing portion of the interactive notebook, this pockets will become a useful place for storing ideas created outside the classroom, and recorded elsewhere. Remember, you are creating authors, and much of writing is the result of frequent and sporadic thought!
Interactive Writer Notebook Pages
As students are creating their interactive reading notebooks, they will need to reserve about half of their composition notebook for interactive writing. Interactive writing represents a visual form of a student's effort at organizing ideas relating to their own story that they write. This story is an extrapolation of the research paper, where students now take what they have studied about a given technology and create a version of the technology as it might appear in the future. Along with this, students need to be thinking about the elements of a good story; plot, setting, character, theme, climax, and so forth. During the creation of the interactive reading notebook, students should set up generic templates for their own stories, so that as their ideas take shape, these ideas will find an organized home in the writing section of the book. This then becomes both a way to stay organized, and a way to hold on to ideas, so that they do not get lost or forgotten. Possible template ideas might include; plot sequence column panels, personality question and answer strips, double page spreads for setting ideas, and hidden panels for the creation of each story character. Pocket pages can store ideas thought out anywhere, and written down at the spur of the moment. Creating an interactive writing notebook concurrently with an interactive reading notebook forces students to connect the two skills into a cohesive bond, one which encourages literacy. It also breaks the task of writing into smaller pieces, and makes it more manageable and enjoyable.