Start the Year off Right with Interactive Supplies
My students need interactive notebook supplies. We need 25 composition books, glue sticks, pencils and 25 clipboards to start interactive notebooks in literacy and math.
"Tell me and I will forget. Teach me and I will remember. Involve me and I will learn." Benjamin Franklin.
My students need the materials to create interactive notebooks so they can become more involved in and responsible for their own learning. This will help them close learning gaps.
My students are creative, practical, hard working, compassionate, exuberant, and are on their way to college!
However, they have many obstacles to overcome on that path. Ninety-six percent of our students receive free or reduced lunch, and almost half of our students do not speak English at home. I teach an inclusion class, which means many of my students are also facing various learning disabilities. Many of my students are 1-4 grade levels behind in reading and math, so we will need to hit the ground running when school starts up in early July. To close these gaps, my students need a lot of explicit strategy instruction to develop a toolbox of skills they can then apply to reading complex texts or complex word problems. Often, when we think of explicit instructionÂÂ, the first word that comes to mind is BORING but with interactive notebooks, explicit instruction is anything but boring. Students get to cut, paste, drawinstruction and fold their way to reading and math excellence.
My Project
We will use the composition books, glue sticks and pencils to create interactive notebooks in reading and in math. The students will use glue sticks to glue their creations into the notebooks and will create a special pencil "cubby" to house their high quality pencils. They will use the clipboards to keep track of any works in progress that are not ready to be glued into the notebooks. With these notebooks, instead of just taking notes on things they need to remember (i.e. memorize), my students will become involved in creating their skills toolboxes. They will create graphic organizers, diagrams, drawings and foldables to represent the skills they need to become successful. At the end of the year, they will have engaged themselves in creating a finished product that they can carry with them for years to come. They will have also taken ownership over their learning and built the habits of character and personal responsibility that will lead to academic and personal success.
My hope is for every one of my students to not only enroll in but graduate college in 2026.
They have a lot of challenges and obstacles to overcome in order to get there but building a toolbox of skills and strategies now is a great first step. I believe that pencils, notebooks and glue can help build the strength of character and the depth of knowledge that my students will need to be competitive in the 21st century.
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