Grading Interactive Notebooks

Sometimes I hear people say that they do not use the interactive notebooks because the grading is so difficult.   I would agree that it can be challenging but I have devised a few ways to keep it manageable.

First of all I would give students a very clear rubric of what you are looking for.   A sample rubric will be included later in this post.

I have the students select an area of best work and write a reflection on that.   Having them tab the following sections will make it easier to grade.

• What you learned
• How you learned
• What aspects of the work were high quality
• What you would do differently and why
• What makes you proud of the work
• What made the activity worthwhile
• For pre service teachers I have them also comment on what they have learned about teaching social studies.

For Elementary and High School, I would suggest keeping notebooks in the class.   The should stay in class so that they are always available when needed.   I would collected them once or twice during a unit, glance at all the entries and then grade one assignment more deeply.   This assignment can either be assigned by the teacher: I am going to grade your sensory Image today.   Be sure you have at least 6 complete sentences and that they really illustrate how the person felt and what they saw or heard.

Or you could have students select their best work from a unit of study.
For your convenience, have students tab the sections you want to look at.   I like to look closely at Table of Contents, Best Work Entry, and Reflection. 

Foldable Templates For Interactive Notebooks