1. THE Notebook! Well, it seems quite obvious that for an interactive notebook you need a notebook, but does the kind matter? In my opinion, YES! Definitely go for composition notebooks like the ones pictured below. Spiral bound notebooks just don't work as well and can easily lose pages throughout the year. Composition notebooks are tightly bound and can endure all of the use you'll be giving your notebook.
2. Scissors! You'll need a classroom set (or have students bring their own) to cut out your notebook inserts.
3. Glue Sticks! I prefer glue sticks a MILLION times over bottled glue to attach notebook inserts. There is a less likely chance of a goopy mess in the notebooks. While some have mentioned glue sticks not sticking as long, I've personally never had this problem and they seem to do the trick just fine.
4. Colored Pencils and Highlighters! While I don't spend an excessive amount of time in class adding color to notebooks, I do encourage students to do so when caught up on their class assignments or have extra time. I explain the use of color like this: "Wouldn't it be boring to look at a black and white textbook? Well, if your notebook is supposed to act as a 'textbook' in this class then it should be visually appealing as well". We all have students from time to time who just don't like "to color"...that's ok, BUT I do include "Appearance" on my rubric which I use to assess the notebooks (see below), so I encourage students to use color (whether with colored pencils or highlighting) in an effective way to make their notebooks more interesting and visually appealing.
6. Rubric! This goes on the inside back cover of the notebook. I assess notebooks with the rubric once per grading period (for me that's once every 9 weeks). My rubric includes categories in Preparation, Use of Time, Organization, Appearance, and Completeness. My Rubric and Table of Contents are both available HERE in my TpT store. The rubric is even in editable format so that you can customize it for your classes.
7. Envelope! While I encourage students to attach inserts to their notebooks before adding in information, sometimes it just may not happen in class. They made need to finish something that they've already cut out but haven't attached at home. An envelope (either a letter sized OR a small manilla envelope) attached to the last page can store inserts and templates that haven't yet been glued.
*Bonus* 8. Cover! A teacher recently emailed to ask if I would create a standard cover for all of her students to attach to the front of their notebooks. I added it as a free download and it can be accessed HERE. You'll find 3 different cover options and I've also included a few interactive notebook templates in the download which may be useful additions to your own INBs.
Any other must-haves for INBs? Feel free to let me know in the comments!
