How to Incorporate Interactive Notebooks Into Any Class – The TPT Blog

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An interactive notebook isn’t a notebook that talks back to you when you write in it (although that would be pretty helpful!). It’s an innovative way to engage students in your instruction, allowing them to take ownership of their own learning and reference materials.

Learn how to structure and use an interactive notebook in any middle school subject and classroom. From interactive math notebooks to grammar guides and geography organizers, you’ll find these resources to be some of the most beneficial ways to teach more complex subjects in your curriculum.

What is an interactive notebook?

An interactive notebook is a student-made reference tool that focuses on a specific concept, topic, or subject. These personalized collections can be in physical notebooks or digital documents, allowing students to refer back to them when needed during a lesson or throughout a unit.

Typically, these notebooks include materials that are fun to create and useful to reference, such as colored graphic organizers and illustrated glossaries. Other parts of an interactive notebook may be:

• a table of contents
• foldable notes and pockets
• formula charts
• logic puzzles and activities
• journey entries
• grade and goal tracking charts

If your class uses computers more than paper, you can still make your notebook interactive! Use digital resources like Google Slides, PowerPoint, or your district’s preferred platform to encourage students to create their own online notebooks.

Benefits of Using Interactive Notebooks

While interactive notebooks may take a little more preparation than standard lecture or textbook notes, they have many benefits that last the entire unit or school year. 

• Interactive notebooks address several important study skills for middle school, including gathering reference materials, organization, and assessing one’s own learning. 
• They encourage students to use active learning and to take ownership of their educational experience.
• A personalized interactive notebook is a powerful way to differentiate instruction within one class period. Struggling students who need vocabulary lists or reminders in their notebooks can add them, while more independent learners can add more complex elements of a lesson, such as journal reflections and questions to address with study groups.

Interactive Notebook Resources for Core Subjects

When teachers hear the word “notebook,” they may assume interactive notebooks belong in ELA, history, or other humanities classes. But in reality, interactive notebooks are valuable learning tools for all subjects — including math and science! 

Discover ways to use these creative reference assignments in the core subjects in your middle schoolers’ schedule, along with thorough resources that include printable templates and instruction ideas.

Bring ELA to life with CCSS-aligned notebook resources

Take ELA skills out of the novel and into your classroom with interactive notebook resources designed for language arts. With components that address reading, writing, grammar, vocabulary, and more, you’ll find that ELA interactive notebooks may be the instructional aid your students have been missing!

Reading Interactive Notebook: Nonfiction Text Activities
By Lovin Lit
Grades: 4th-8th
Subjects: English Language Arts, Informational Text, Reading Strategies
Standards: CCSS RI.4.1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 5.1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 6.1, 2, 5, 6, 8, 9, 7.2, 5, 6, 8, 9, 8.2, 5, 6, 8, 9; CCRA.R.1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8

This CCSS-aligned interactive notebook resource includes 14 chapters of no-prep ELA informational reading units ready to add to your teaching toolbox. Each one includes teacher’s notes and instructions, sample finished product photos, and printable student templates for them to glue into their interactive notebooks.

Comma Rules Interactive Notebook Flipbook
By Mixed-Up Files
Grades: 6th-9th
Subjects: English Language Arts, Grammar
Standards: CCSS.L.6.2a, L.7.2a, L.8.2a

How do you make grammar rules interactive? Put them into an interactive notebook! A sports-themed ELA resource has everything you need to create an interactive notebook focused on comma usage, including templates on commas in a series, commas with introductory phrases, and punctuating quotations and dialogue.

Take a deep dive into interactive science notebooks

Science is a natural fit for interactive notebook lessons. Formulas, lab notes, and instructional charts all belong in these one-stop science shops, making your students’ chemistry, biology, and physics notebooks even more valuable than before! 

Counting Atoms for Interactive Notebooks
By Bond with James
Grades: 7th-11th
Subjects: Chemistry, Physical Science, Science

For an interactive science notebook that straightens out counting atoms for students, bring this resource and its printable templates to your high school chemistry class. An interactive graphic organizer helps students grasp the nuances of this concept, while practice problems let you check for understanding before moving on to the next lesson.

Protein Synthesis Interactive Notebook Activity
By I Heart Teaching Science
Grades: 9th-12th
Subjects: Biology, General Science, Science

Put the protein synthesis lecture notes away and hand out a set of biology Quicknotes to your high school bio students! This interactive and differentiated resource lets students organize their interactive notebook to go along with your lesson on protein synthesis.

Astronomy and Space Science Interactive Notebook
By NGS Magnified formerly Nitty Gritty Science
Grades: 5th-10th
Subject: Astronomy, Earth Sciences, Science

Can you condense the mystery of space into one notebook? With this interactive notebook resource, you can! Cover astronomy topics like the cycle of seasons, the tilt and rotation of Earth, solar and lunar eclipses, and other NGSS-connected concepts with printable templates and engaging activities.

Integrate interactive math notebooks into your unit plan

Interactive math notebooks make the phrase “open-note test” your students’ favorite thing to hear! They can jot down formulas and practice problems, arithmetic laws, and reminders for algebra and geometry problems. 

Laws of Exponents Wheel Foldable (Great for Math Interactive Notebooks)
By Math in Demand
Grades: 6th-9th
Subjects: Algebra, Fractions, Math

Are your middle schoolers struggling with the law of exponents? Help them master this fundamental concept with a foldable math wheel! This helpful resource “folds” into an interactive math notebook nicely, ensuring that students always have access to the power rule, quotient rule, product rule, and more.

Slope and Slope Formula Interactive Notebook Activity
By Route 22 Educational Resources
Grades: 6th-9th
Subjects: Algebra, Graphing, Math

Slope lessons can be tricky for new algebra learners, but this interactive math notebook resource makes slope and slope formula simple to understand. Use this printable template to remind students of the definition, graph instructions, ordered pairs, and more during a slope lesson and the rest of the unit.

Take note of social studies with interactive notebooks

Historians have been writing down important concepts since recorded history. Let your students follow in their footsteps with interactive notebooks for social studies subjects like history, geography, sociology, and others.

Geography and Map Skills Interactive Notebook | Print and Digital
By Right Down the Middle with Andrea
Grades: 3rd-6th
Subjects: Geography, Social Studies

Don’t wait until a geography test to give students a study guide! This interactive notebook serves as a study guide they can add to and carry around all year long. From geography concepts like the world’s continents to latitude and longitude, the printable templates and graphic organizers are great additions to students’ social studies notebooks.

Age of Exploration Interactive Notebook
By The Teacher’s Prep
Grades: 5th-8th
Subject: European History, U.S. History, World History

Who was Juan Ponce de Leon, and how is he similar to Willem Janszoon? Help middle schoolers master the age of exploration with an interactive notebook resource on this pivotal time in history. Ten interactive activities, along with an answer key, help keep names, dates, and settlements straight as you cover the European influence on the entire world.

How to Make Your Own Interactive Notebook

Need an interactive notebook lesson for a topic not covered above? Follow these tips to create your own interactive notebook materials and units for any middle school subject.

1. Have students bring in an empty spiral or composition notebook, or obtain a class set of notebooks for them.
2. Decide how long you want the interactive notebook to last, such as one lesson, one unit, or the whole year. If it’s a long-term notebook, pass out sticky tabs or sticky notes for students to split up sections. (This prevents you from using only 10 pages of the notebook and wasting the rest of it!)
3. Create templates for each part of the interactive notebook, making it either specific to your lesson or general for use in other units.
4. Make your own exemplar version of the interactive notebook to show students, if they need help.
5. Provide materials like glue, tape, and art supplies that students can always access, in case they need to add something to their notebooks.

For digital interactive notebooks, you can skip the physical notebook and art supplies and put the templates into a format students are familiar with, such as Google Slides or Quizlet. They can then combine their activities for an online interactive notebook that they can reference on their devices!

Make lessons interactive to engage your middle schoolers

Ban the phrase “Where do I look this up?” in your classroom forever when you bring interactive notebooks into your next lesson. With important dates, definitions, formulas, charts, and details at their fingertips, your middle schoolers will become research pros in just a matter of pages. Find more resources for interactive notebooks for different subjects, and enjoy a more engaging classroom plan!