Organizing Student Learning

Organizing student learning can be a large undertaking, but interactive reading notebooks really help.  I find myself telling my students a LOT that our brains learn best when we are organized and when our learning is organized.  It's just true and some students need more help with this than others.  Some students are blessed with being naturally organized.  

Once I started using Reading Notebooks, I couldn't see how I taught without them.  I use a 3 ring binder for my notebooks for every student in my guided reading groups. 

  I help students keep them neat by keeping them in baskets on a shelf rather than in a desk.  

Using tabs in your notebooks is a lifesaver!  Or I should say time saver.  Tabs just naturally help students get to the correct section, quickly without wasting time.  They can just grab the correct tab: Word Work, My Thoughts (Comprehension), Vocabulary, or My Books.  

By using sections, students can organize their learning.  They learn what each section means and where to be working.

In the front pocket, we keep our sight word pockets for sight word practice.  We quickly get these out for 2-3 minutes and go over words that are differentiated for each student.

Another good thing to keep in the front pocket is our Reader's Ask...Does It Look Right, Does It Sound Right, Does It Make Sense cards.  

We also keep our linking sounds anchor charts in the pockets of the notebooks.  I need pockets!  We use magnetic letters, markers, bingo chips, pom poms, etc... on our charts.

When we have used up the pages in our Reading Notebooks, I have a place with extra copies.  This copy box (from Walmart) holds different pages ready to go!  Makes replacing notebook pages easy without wasting precious reading time.

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