Interactive Reader's Notebook Organization

I have been using Reader's Notebooks of one sort or another for quite some time now.  Years really.  I used to use spiral bound notebooks for them.  But they never really worked just right for me.  For one thing, the wires always tangled with another notebook and had to be pulled apart.  Another problem that I had was anytime I wanted to add a page, it had to be cut smaller to fit and then glued.  Messy and time consuming!

So now I use 3-ring notebooks for the students.  And let me tell you how much easier, nicer looking and organized it is!!  Plus, by using a 3-ring binder I can have different sections in an easier way.  I like color coding my sections and I couldn't do that as well before.  

The notebook I use now requires minimal coloring, cutting and gluing.  I like the way the notebooks look that use all that, but I simply do not have time for that with my groups.  I need something streamlined, easy to use, but still engaging and motivating for students.

My first section is for word work.  Word work is so important for students.  We do a lot of word sorting so I have different word sort pages for this.

I use different word sort pages because sometimes we sort into more than two groups.

Got to have a word wall for students to have a place to add words- sight words, thematic words, domain specific words, etc...  We even use sound boxes.  

My second section is My Thoughts- the comprehension section of our notebook...the heart of reading.  

This is the section that we use the most.  Where we put our thoughts about what we read, our Sticky Note Thinking, Prove It To Me answer frames, etc...

The third section is our vocabulary part.  Learning new words, what they mean, and how to use them is more important now than ever.  

This is just one of the vocabulary pages we use.  Another one helps the students use context clues from the text to determine the meaning of the vocabulary word.  

I wanted to try something new this year.  I want my students to take more responsibility for their learning.  Students can keep track of the genre types of books they are reading, their goals for reading, fluency, student conferencing, etc...  The more involved they are in their own learning, the more aware they are of what they need to do to improve and take their reading to the next level.  

You can click any picture above to see this notebook in my store or just click here to be taken there.

I am teaming up with some other top notch teachers and their language arts materials for an Educents bundle for 3rd and 4th grades!  My Reader's Notebook is included along with 14 ELA materials that you will just love!

Some of the other products in our bundle to get your kids learning are centers, printables, vocabulary, book studies, interactive notebooking and so much more!

After you finish here on my blog, hop on over to the lovely Laura's blog:  Love to Teach.  She has something for you on her blog too!

But that's not all!   I want to give you a chance at winning my Word Collector- Personal Dictionary.  Just pin the Educents picture or any of My Reader's Notebook pictures and enter the pin into Rafflecopter.  Easy, peasy!!   Good luck!

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The deal won't last long so head over now!