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How do you create Buy In with Interactive Notebooks?

It’s been awhile since I did a post for Interactive Notebooks 101 and since I just got back from presenting a workshop I have PLENTY of tips to share.

Every time I am at a workshop I get asked the same question over and over in some way, shape or form… “How do I get my students to buy in to Interactive Notebooks?

Creating Buy In for Interactive Notebooks

Any time that you start something new in your classroom you have to start by being enthused and energetic about it from the beginning yourself. I can’t tell you how many times I have been reluctant about trying something and that makes my students reluctant about trying it as well.

How can you do this with Interactive Notebooks? When we allow students to truly make their Interactive Notebooks their own and move outside of our personal comfort zone that can also help with buy in. Students want to make something personal and this is just the start. Color and creativity can be key components.

What are some other ways to capture students? What about involving them in the the planning? Students like when they can be involved and despite the fact that many of us have curriculum guides to follow we can still allow our students to help us plan different components of their learning. I would typically let my students choose what color they wanted the next flippable to be on or even sometimes which flippable to use if it needed a certain number of spots. This helped me not only involve them but to also take that extra step off my plate.

Many of us as math teachers have word problems in our Interactive Notebooks. An easy way to incorporate our students is to use their names in the very word problems that we use. Yes, this is an extra step if we have to type them up ourselves but if you are using your students or people that your students know then they will connect to that problem.

What about for those time when you have open-ended work? Students in my class were able to choose their own flippables at times to help create their study guides and create/solve word problems. By just keeping a few of the various types of flippables printed (or just keeping the extras from each time I copied them) this allowed my students to take ownership of that material that they were then compiling.

And I know there are times that you will have students fight the cutting and gluing because they think it is just too babyish for them. This right here is when you have to PROVE to them how they can be beneficial. This can simply be by either telling stories of prior students, allowing them use their notebooks on quizzes in class and also showing how studying their notebooks can pay off for a better grade and understanding overall.

What are some other ways that you have been able to create “buy in” with your students?

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