I make them a part of the lesson each and every time we do science.

Due to the number of writing EALRs met through the use of the science notebook, I find it validates using Language Arts time to work on the notebook, if necessary.

The children write their procedures, their observations and any data they collect.

The teacher needs to know how to pace the lesson so that reflection time gets a 'fair share' of the class time allotted for Science.

One of the classroom jobs is to hand out Science Notebooks. The notebooks go out before we begin a lesson so they are always handy and not as forgettable.

For K, I do it whole class and use my writing time. We create just one big notebook!

Consider pre-typing some items that students can glue in.

I think the best way for ANY student to learn science vocabulary is to allow them the opportunity to draw about their experiments and label drawings using a word bank or glossary. They can dictate to someone who can translate the writing for them initially.

I just require pictures and labels. They can copy the writing from their partner.

Consider using cloze passages, and tracing of words.

Use the same vocabulary in Math, Reading, and Writing.

Some teachers have the partner at least place handed out data sheets inside the notebook for the missing student.

'Science specialists', chosen to assist the teacher that week or month, can meet with the student during a lunch period, before school, or after school for extra credit. A separate set of materials is kept in a science center in the room for use with students who have been absent.

I allow my students to re-do the experiment at lunch and then do the data sheets with the real experience.

Some teachers create a 'sample' notebook with all the paste-ins etc. The student who was absent can then check to see what they missed and update their notebook.

The teacher can use any absent student's notebook as the teacher's model for that day.

If you keep a posted Table of Contents, the absent student can see what they need to catch up on by checking the class Table of Contents.

I ask my students to copy their partner's work the next day.

Notebooks need to be used for each Science class. Sometimes it can be just attaching a data sheet that was used during the lesson. Sometimes it is a summary statement about the lesson itself. Sometimes is it an extensive piece used for both data and reflection.

I do a visual survey and use a teacher observation sheet with just a couple of things you want to watch for put on a clipboard as I roam around the room. I have to be intentional about getting to everyone.

I give my students three post-its to mark the three instances of their 'best' work based on the criteria we have discussed.

I give students criteria and then have them, as a group, rate whether they met the criteria.

I don't always have time to grade them but I have instituted 'Science Meetings' where I determine the focus of the day's meeting and then students read each other's notebooks and provide oral feedback based on the day's criteria (as a scientist would). I then wander around making anecdotal notes.

The LASER rubric for scoring notebooks has been really helpful. That is the one where the student colors in yellow and I color in blue. If we agree, the space on the rubric turns green (yellow+blue) if we don't agree, if is very obvious.

I have the students turn in their data or student record sheet BEFORE they paste it into their notebook. I can then score just a small stack of papers instead of a large stack of notebooks. I hand the papers out the next day and the students put them into their notebooks.

Student should know the rubric for expectations for entries and can self evaluate. The teacher can comment about students' ability to self evaluate.

Use a notebook for each new unit so that they are not used for such a long time. Also, purchase a two pocket folder to keep the spiral in.

Use the theme notebook or the composition book with wide rule: even young children can use these.

Contact a local printshop and ask to have notebooks created with a space at the top for pictures and lines at the bottom for the writing.

Collecting the notebooks and keeping them in a central place makes them last a lot longer.

I number the pages for the very young students and they stay all on the same page at all times.

I use a binder clip that holds all the unused pages in the notebook. At the end of a lesson, the children let the used page out of the clip.

I have the student either tie a ribbon onto the spiral or tape a ribbon to the back page of the notebook and they use the ribbon to find their place like in a bible.

Student should be very familiar with nonfiction text through reading. This should also help them navigate a notebook.

My first graders have been very competent at finding the Table of Contents and putting in their data sheets. They are also not bothered by differences in page numbers if they were absent.

I use post-its with kids. They make a permanent tab for the Table of Contents and the glossary. Then, there is a movable tab for where we are next.

Some folks laminate a bookmark that the students can put on their last page. The kids can lose these as they are loose, however.

I make sure that my students are always on the same page. Then we can talk about what page they should be on. This helps make the Table of Contents work better too.

Have the children just number the pages as they use them.

For my little ones, I write what the table of contents entry should be for the day on a transparency that looks just like the Table of Contents page they have in their notebooks. Date, Entry, Page.

You must do an oral conference with them so that you can make sure they understand your expectations. You might have to have an interpreter present when you do this if English is the second language.

I do individual 'conferences' for all students with my first graders.Students will often have a science partner who can read it to them.

SE WA LASER Alliance has created a primary rubric with smiley faces on it.

King County (KCDA) has begun (2006) to carry science notebooks for districts to order. Contact Melinda Kinsley at: mkinsley@kcda.org to request a listing of the available types for all levels.

Yakima School District orders through a local printer they made a deal with. The notebooks are 8 x 11 and are made of a stiff paper cover not cardboard.

Many local venders have spiral notebooks at the beginning of the year but they are not sturdy so you need some sort of two pocket folder for a cover. Make sure you put it on your end-of-the-year supply list if you are going to use a local vender instead of something like KCDA.

Use pictures at first to tell the story. They can dictate small captions for the pictures.

Consider doing a "big book" for the whole class instead of individual notebooks.

Invite in an upper grade partner to be guest scientists to help with this.

Put the notebooks on public display at science fairs, conferences, etc. to show students how important it is to write and how much information they can provide to another reader.

Ask students to write on just one element of the activity.Remember how important it is to model your expectations. Next, ask them to label their drawings and provide them with the correct labels for these on a word wall or word bank.

Ask a few students to dictate verbally to a parent partner to increase their confidence and to create a notebook entry that they are really proud of and can read to themselves or to others.

Do some shared writing. We do this in combination with adding our own comments.

I use echo spelling.

As writing has become a big part of all content, my students have not had as much difficulty. They are coming to me with better writing skills in their notebooks.

We need a workshop that allows us to practice on sample student notebook entries. Also, we need to see examples of high quality critical feedback.

Teachers need to learn to take a long look, in depth, at key lessons (gatekeeper) to provide critical feedback at those times. Do quick looks at less critical places.

Highlight objectives in each lesson to focus your thinking.

Use a rubric to have students self-evaluate and then the teacher can evaluate them too. This could be done mid unit and again at the end.

Ask yourself what the objective of the lesson is. That should help focus on what you could/should say for whether the student met the target for the day and what you might want them to do better.

I pair a stronger/weaker student to give critical feedback to each other prior to the teacher scoring them.

Learning how to be reflective is not easy. Adults have difficulty with it too. Have the students use the words "I wonder" or "It reminds me of" to begin a more reflective notebook entry.

Students need to get to the depth of a reflection and understanding not just filling out the start of a sentence correctly. "Reflection" is critical across the content (Essential Learning 3 and 4).

Think, pair, share can help reluctant reflectors!

Model reflection, use co-op reflections, whatever, practice, practice, practice!

"Tell me what you learned."

If students started in kindergarten-think of the reflections they would be able to make by the time they were in the 5th grade!!!

Have their partner read it before they turn it in.

Post sentence strips around the room with the sentence starters to prompt the reflection.

Lessons in a full curriculum need to be examined for the four or five times when a "gate keeping" lesson can be determined. These are the times when you would not want your students to move through the gate to the next level of the material if they do not have some mastery of the content. These are important times to tune into their progress and a time when you must commit to examining them.

Often enough so that students know teacher values their notebooks and their importance as a scientific tool.

Some teachers have students highlight a section they want the teacher to score or at least to look at.

Establish teacher check points that are relevant to your overall goals and lesson objectives.

A "core" type spiraling vocabulary activity can help.

It is important to focus on students on the fact that using a glossary as a feature of nonfiction text.

The glossary is a reference tool for students to grasp an understanding of.Many folks are having difficulty with the student generated glossary in the back of the notebook. The other option is to have the students glue in the glossary from the unit and underline the words or highlight them when they have encountered them in the course of the lesson.

I do the above but have children glue the glossary on the right side only. Then, I ask them to write a sentence, in their own words, on the left side of the notebook just across from the word that they underlined that is defined for them by the publisher.

I no longer use a glossary but have turned to the Word Wall instead. I promise myself that I will get the words down off the chart at least once a week and play some sort of game with the children using the words.

Choose words for the grade level that are based on WASL words too.

Use the Table of Contents as the opening task to start the science lesson.

This is something that just has to be done each class period. Assign the task of remembering this to one of your students to nag you into remembering. Doing it each day and circulating around the room to make sure everyone does it is the best way to keep current.

I put a GIANT Table of Contents up in the room that I write on each class period so that students can see the real thing.

I copy a Table of Contents onto a transparency and use it on the overhead each time we have Science.

I pretype all parts of the Table of Contents in the Activity section and have the students just add the date and the page number of the activity each class time.

I like to have my students do a "partner check". This is when I need to get around the classroom quickly, the students can check each other.

The date is one of the most important parts of the Table of Contents.

Teachers do all different types of things and sometimes it looks different from year to year depending on the students in the class. One strategy is to write critical comments that praise a target reached that are written directly on the page but the portion of the comment that challenges the student to go further can be written on the post-it because it needs dealing with. Place it on the edge so the tab sticks out. When you had the notebooks back to the student, it indicates that there is something they need to deal with and when they have completed the task sufficiently and shown it to you, you will remove the post it.

This is really a teacher decision. Use post-its that are color coded for students to use when marking a page that is to be corrected. This will save lots of time looking in the notebook for the right page. Teacher can use the same post-it to write critical feedback on it!

Another strategy is to write on the left side and put a post-it on the page so it sticks out showing where there is something that the student needs to take care of. When they have completed the necessary task, they turn the notebook in with the post-it still present. I take the post-it off when I have checked their new work and ok'd what they have turned in.

Some teachers have created a tab in a file cabinet. Students go to the file cabinet and file their notebook behind the tab that lists their table number or team name.Other teachers have baskets or bins with tables or team numbers on them. A materials manager either brings the notebooks up to the proper bin or carries the bin around from table to table allowing students to toss their notebooks in.

You can color code them for the students so they know which is which. Ask yourself if it is really necessary to have one in each subject or can some topic areas be combined into the same notebook.

Some teaches store notebooks in different places in the classroom. Perhaps the science notebooks are near the science materials and the other notebooks can be found in other corners of the room.

You just have to be intentional about their use: it does pay off.

Assess only entries that show evidences of the lessons or units objectives.

Several folks have created them so ask colleagues. Rubistar.com is a website that allows you to create your own. Pasadena, California has one that is commonly used by early notebook users that has been adopted by SE WA LASER Alliance.

Based on specific assignments, develop a rubric on the goal or objective of the lesson itself. If you dissect the objective into discrete parts, you can also use the words or phrasing to write a more succinct note of critical feedback.

I use fake journal entries that are reflective of the types of entries I am beginning to see in their own notebooks but they are written by "Sandy Scientist". I type them on the computer in a handwriting font and make a transparency of them. The students tell me how I should score the entry and what the student could do to improve the quality of the entry using the rubric we have agreed upon.

Model, model, model!

You can use peer editing just as you would do in a Language Arts class. Before putting the notebooks away, kids can edit each other's. Powerful way to improve their own writing.

The decision needs to be made whether a certain skill could be reinforced by having students make their own chart or create their own graph. Other times, you need to decide whether it is important to practice that skill or to get the information down and in a complete format so providing that predone sheet is best. This is something that should be discussed at an inservice presentation when learning about the unit.

Students need experience using a ruler and this is a legitimate use. It helps to integrate a simple math skill by applying it to a new context. Students, even primary students, are very capable of doing data tables. Time is one of the most necessary things to take into consideration.

Put glue sticks, post-its, scissors, colored pencils, etc. on your supply list for students to bring at the beginning of the year.

Each table team could have a small bin with all the necessary items in it. That way you don't have to pass the stuff out all the time.