If you haven't noticed by now, one of my favorite parts of the day is Texas History. We teach it in fourth grade, and then they pick it up again in seventh grade. Due to this split I think it is really important for students to have a place where they can log their learning.
By using an INB for Texas History, students are able to organize their learning and keep if for the future, which I am sure all of them do.
In the beginning of the year I try to start out INBs off on the right foot with this
Start-Up Kit. The kit includes a table of contents, about me page, sentence stems, and a rubric for the INB. We usually complete these pages during the first week of school to get started on the right foot!
I like to go ahead and have my students write in each of the topics that we are going to be studying throughout the year on the table of contents. This gives them a good preview of what will be covered, and gives students a plan for the year. I also have students go ahead and number the pages in the INB at least to page 100.
This about me page is a good way to have students introduce themselves to you and their classmates. After completing it I like to have students stand up, hand up, pair up and share about their pages with one another.
Sentence stems are one of my favorite ways to encourage students to think about their learning, and respond through output in their INBs. These sentence stems are generic enough that they can be used to encourage thinking throughout each of the units.
Finally, a rubric allows both students and their teacher to be on the same page about the expectations for their INB. I like to pick up INBs periodically, usually only once per grading period, and use this rubric to grade them.
This is awesome! I used to teach 4th grade and would have loved this! I'm going to share it with our 4th grade teachers!
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