Observations from students today included:
- Trouble understanding what should and should not go in the notebook
- Arguements over books
- Lack of desire to do the work
- Literacy issues with reading the book and finding the answers to questions (though at least these kids were working)
- A small percentage of kids that like to keep organized didn't like my format and argued with me to keep using their own (which wouldn't be an issue if I'd started this at the beginning of school)
All in all, there is a lot of thinking about these notebooks that I need to do. Essentially, I'm forcing my students to turn in their work to me in a format that I like. There is nothing wrong with that, because frequently in life they will have to format things in a way that doesn't suit them. This is especially true if they attend any form of higher education.
However, I ask the question of myself - what is this doing for them? I need to survey them at the end and find out if any of them use the Interactive Notebooks for studying and if they find them helpful at all. I'm going to quiz the students and let them use their Interactive Notebooks, but I find myself asking what that will really show? A quiz is supposed to be a small form of an assessment where I determine who is having trouble and if I need to re-teach any material. If they are using their Interactive Notebooks to take the quiz, then I'm testing their reading abilities and not their knowledge. I'm so frustrated.
In short... I think I've brought up more questions than answers.
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