Last week I talked about what REALLY were Interactive Notebooks. I wanted to follow up today with how Interactive Notebooks can benefit multiple learning types. Join me today but also check out the other blogs who are linked up below joining me as well.
Every year we as teachers are given the task of making sure that our lessons align with the learning types of each of our students in our given classrooms. We walk in at the beginning of the year hoping for the best and knowing that we will do our best as teachers. What we don’t know is the various learning styles of our students and how they will affect our classroom make-up.
For the longest time (and for sure when I grew up), the traditional method of teaching was what we saw. There was direct instruction followed by practice and then assessment. Most of the practice for students was in the form of a worksheet to make for easy right or wrong answers with little room for creativity.
Using worksheets in the classroom if not implemented effectively and monitored can be counterproductive to student learning. Worksheets do have their place to help build on retaining of skills that students already have prior knowledge. When students are left to work on a worksheet independently, or even in a group, if done incorrectly then it requires extra time to be taken to unteach, reteach and then reassess.
When we as teachers allow students to be a part of their learning and interact with the skills that we are teaching they truly take initiative to go deeper. I know that time and time again I am asked about how Interactive Notebooks can help each student in a given classroom.
This past Spring I wrote a guest post over at Minds In Bloom about the benefits of using Interactive Notebooks and how they reach each learner in our classrooms. The way that we set up lessons, make them interactive and develop their learning through output activities that they answer on their own most of the time with no definitive answer.
Take time to read the blog post on reasons to use Interactive Notebooks but also take some time to check out the bloggers below and their posts on Understanding Interactive Notebooks. I would love to hear what you have learned from the posts so please feel free to leave a comment (or two) on the blog posts you read.
