Social Studies Notebooks

I have been completely inspired by the notebooking movement.  I have done a lot of research over the past few weeks and it seems PERFECT for my fourth graders.  I am an anchor chart girl.  Usually floor to ceiling of my classroom is covered in my anchor charts.  But I have been thinking, I want my fourth graders to OWN their thinking and understanding.  What better way to do that than to record the information and log their thinking themselves??  I hope that each notebook becomes a source of pride for them as they see all they have learned throughout the year. 

The type of notebooks people are the most familiar with are reading response journals and science notebooks.  But I found a blog about social studies notebooks, and I thought, "Well, why not go whole hog??"  Mostly, these are called interactive notebooks online if you want to look them up.  I will simply call mine "Social Studies Notebooks" because I can't keep up with the different terms for each composition book. 
So I will have 4 composition books in my classroom.
Writing Journal: For Writer's Workshop, exercises during craft lessons, planning and prewriting. 
Reading Response Journal (RRJ):  For notetaking during ELA and response exercises during Reader's Workshop
Science Notebook: notetaking, foldables, exercises, labs, and responses
Social Studies Notebook: notetaking, foldables, exercises, responses

I have decided that I will grade 3 of these notebooks (RRJ, the Science Notebook, and the Social Studies Notebook).  I am going to take one up each Friday, so their notebooks will be graded every 3 weeks.  I have a rubric, thanks to the ever Fabulous Mary Beth Newchurch.  Each rubric might be a little bit different, but basically I will be looking for completeness, neatness, and thoughfulness in all of the entries.  I will have the student glue in the rubric, shade in yellow what THEY think they should score, and then I will shade in blue what I think they should score.  This will give them an opportunity to practice self evaluation, which is such an important skill as their work becomes increasingly more independent. 

I am very, very excited about this for my students.  I am not a worksheet person for the most part so I think this will be a great way to organize our learning.  One thing that many notebooking pros suggest in personalization of the cover of the comp books.  My disclaimer here is that I am usually NOT a very touchy feely teacher.  As long as it is organized and functional I am good to go.  I have never decorated Writing Journal's in the past because I felt like it was a gargantuan waste of time.  BUT due to the importance I feel that this notebooks are going to play in our learning life this year, I want to give them all the POMP and CIRCUMSTANCE they deserve.  I am (gasp) decorating all of my comp books.  I am going to give students the option of personalizing each comp book at the beginning of the year.  I am going to ask that each book is unique and theme related so they can clearly see which comp book is which when it is in their desk or cubby.  However, I am not going to force this because it is, after all 4 comp books and I do LOVE my sweet parents.  I want them to love me too so I try not to torture them. 

So anyhow, here is my project for tonight.  My Social Studies Notebook.....

In 4th, we study the U.S.  I cut out of magazines words, phrases or pictures that reminded me of the U.S.  I loved how it turned out!

I wanted part of my notebook to have a U.S. History focus and the front turned out very geography based.  I love U.S. history, so I picked out some favorite quotes and inspirational historical pictures for the back.  I still need to cover it with contact paper, but I got the wrong kind at the store.  That will be tomorrow's project!

Each notebook needs a title page.  I love the ELA tie-in to text features.  My comp book will be our master copy that students who are absent can copy out of. 

The science and social studies notebooks will each also have a table of contents and an Index.  Students are responsible for keeping the index and table of contents current.. I will give them time at the end of each lesson to quickly update this.  I got this grid online.  Just search science notebooks...  I will do the table of contents with my kids.  You need to allow between 2-4 page at the front just for the table of contents.

Hope you have enjoyed my start of notebooking.  Do you use notebooking in your classroom?  Please leave a comment and share your experiences.  :-)

Love,
Mrs. Kelly