I love notebooks. I require my students to keep one, and they use it every day. I don't issue textbooks. Texts have become so heavy and cumbersome that students can't carry them around. I do keep a class set in my room for us to use when we need it, but I tell my students that their notebook will essentially become their textbook.
For my class, students need a 2 inch 3-ring binder divided into five sections: Reading, Literature, Grammar, Vocabulary, Writing.
Everything I give to students or ask them to do goes into their notebook,
dated,
labeled, and
in the proper section. This includes handouts, worksheets, assignments, returned tests/quizzes, lecture notes, exercises from the text. EVERYTHING.
Whenever I hand out ANYTHING, I say, "Make sure you put the date at the top of this and put it in the ____________________ section." I never assume students know which section. Even if it's
grammar. Some of them don't understand it goes in the
Grammar Section. I know, sigh! So I say it. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. Saves us all a lot of headaches.
At the end of the grading period, I give students a written test on their notebook. Items look like this:
GRAMMAR SECTION
1. August 10 "Identifying Subjects and Predicates Exercise A" What is the correct answer for item #5? _____________________________
2. August 11 "Parts of Speech Review Handout" What is the word you labeled ADVERB in sentence #9? ________________________
LITERATURE SECTION
3. August 16 "Notes on J.R.R. Tolkien" When was Tolkien born? ____________
I try to have a question from every day. My test is divided just like the notebook and in the same order. The test is super easy to make out. I just keep a notepad on my podium. Every day I write down the date, one question, and its answer. (Make sure students don't have access to this, btw.)
Grading is a breeze, students are held accountable for all work done, and I am not bogged down checking notebooks all weekend.
I make sure that students are aware that they are responsible for everything that they miss when they are absent. If they write ABSENT in the blank for an item, too bad. No excuses. You can check out my
Make Up Work post
here. This helps make students responsible for getting their own make up work completed.
Students who move into my class from another teacher or district are not responsible for items they weren't here for. I just make a note of the day they entered my class and excuse them from everything prior to that date. Easy peasey.
I emphasize to students that notebooks should be organized, and the easiest way to get them organized is on DAY ONE. Inevitably, there will be students scrambling to find papers wadded up in the bottom of their backpacks on the day of the test. I do
not allow this during the test. Students can have ONLY their notebook on their desk along with something to write with and the test itself. No searching through backpacks.
I do
time notebook tests; otherwise, some students will continue to search for missing items the whole period. Generally, when most everyone is done, I will say, "You have five minutes to complete this test." At the end of that time, I take them up. I also don't answer questions like, "Is this the handout you mean?" I simply tell them to look and see if it is the right date, label, and section. Students learn pretty quickly to get themselves organized. They also learn to pay attention when we go over an activity and make any corrections to items they did incorrectly. If they don't have the correct answer on the notebook test, they miss it.
Sometimes students will say something like, "But I loaned that handout to Billy and he never returned it" or "I left it on my desk at home." My answer? Lesson learned.
Notebooks for my class do eventually become quite full. I usually spend some time at the beginning of the next grading period going through and telling students what they can discard and what they need to keep.
Hopefully this idea will help make your class run more smoothly and simply. Good luck!
