‘About Me’ Profiles
3 years ago
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Sceince Notebooks in the classroom
In my middle school Dyad placement, my master teacher uses science notebooks in the classroom for the student's to keep a running record of all their lab notes, classnotes and assignments, all in one place. I think that this makes sense on so many levels. It helps the students keep track of all their papers in one place. It also keeps a sequential record of what was done in class, hopefully helping making it more clear to the students the progression of a unit. The science notebooks also allow the teacher a quick way to walk around the room and do a quick check of all the notebook entries, so that students get immediate feedback on their work. The students can also use their notebooks for the tests, so that is an incentive to keep their notebooks in good shape and if they have been keeping good notes, etc in their journals, then they usually don't even hardly need the notebooks during the test.
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Keeping a science notebook seems to be a common practice for 5th graders. I like the idea of it for several reasons--transfer of information, providing you a study guide, etc. but my big problem is the notebook is only as good as the notes in it.
My DYAD teacher spends a lot of time having kids write info into their notebooks, but the notebooks are not turned in until the assessment. If you do a poor job getting the info into your notebook, you're screwed.
When I asked her about this, she said that the master notebook was always available for kids to review during early work, and they know that. I've never seen even one student get the master notebook out.
It makes me wonder what the purpose of writing down the material actually is. Not surprisingly, the struggling students are the ones with the undecipherable notebooks, as well as some of the ELL students. Wouldn't your students be better off with a packet at some point? Give them the note taking opportunity, but follow up with the information they need.
Another option I've seen is the peer check of a notebook. That can be helpful or futile, depending on the peer.
Teaching science appears to be a great challenge. My DYAD teacher said never to teach a science lesson for an observation as too many things can go wrong! She told me that after I taught a science lesson. I love science and wish their was more time for it. It gets kids thinking, and questioning and participating. Keeping a lab book is an important part of scientific inquiry, and they should definitely be practicing that skill, but give them something concrete, that's correct for reference.
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