Our school supply list includes two composition books, but I prefer spiral books, and I want them all the same color. So I use my supply money to buy the spirals for writing notebooks. All those shiny covers make me giddy.
Instead of spirals I have composition notebooks (which are provided and also stay in classroom), because pages don’t rip out easily during transporting them in and out of crate.
How long are your periods?
I wish to build in a daily written (instead of verbal) reflection but 45 minutes is such little time for 11 years olds as it is.
Would love to see what rubric you use for notebook checks on organization etc. Thank you!
Our class periods are different based on the day (M = 45 min, T/W = 75 min, Th/Fri = 90 min) and, if you think that is confusing and difficult to navigate...yes, yes it is, haha.
On our 45 minute days there are definitely fewer activities on the individual spiral page compared to the longer block periods, and without question it is difficult to create time for any daily practice with such a short time period.
(I'm still editing our spiral notebook rubric for the upcoming year, but I can message it to you when it's done!)
Now that’s another level schedule! Perhaps high school students are able to navigate it… We have a 30 min day once a week and that throws middle schoolers (and teachers off!). Thank you so much for sharing. I appreciate your efforts and generosity. 🙏😊
I also use composition books for similar reasons (when I've used spirals they tend to get destroyed within the first couple of weeks) but I am not nearly as organized as Marcus is - sometimes Staples has a sale and you can pick these up for as little as 10 cents a notebook. I just bought 60 for the upcoming year because we are going to do some more writing in class. I teach history so we do a lot of opening questions, reactions, primary source work, and other content driven activities. But lots of good tips in here. Thx Marcus!
Hi, I’m curious how you have students organize longer texts, like articles or short stories, into their spirals? Do they tape in individual pages or create pockets? Thank you!
The general rule for me is that if it's a half-page or smaller, we'll tape it in—and otherwise they'll either read from the textbook or access it digitally with their Chromebooks.
With the longer texts, we may create a close-reading table or guide in the spiral as we go—but I do try to avoid over-cluttering the spirals with bulky tape-in's, for sure.
Your ideas and resources are brilliant!! I’ve always used writers notebooks that stay in the classroom, but you’ve given me even more ideas for how to use them! I’m starting my year (tomorrow) with your notecard values lesson—thank you! And I’m wondering if you would mind sharing your roster/values doc? 🙏🏼🩷
New teacher here! I'm going to try this out, but will have to quickly fundraise. The school already started and I'm beginning a month in (after Labor Day).
One basic question: have you found that the 70 page spiral notebook suffices or do you use a different number?
70-page makes it through the semester easily, but it can be a bit dicey towards the end of the school year (though the easy fix is to just use old spirals that you can recycle to get one unit's worth of pages for students who need it).
100-page is probably perfect, but I let students make the call for themselves!
* for the class roster, what's your process of having the class fill it out? Do you go around the class and ask each student to share their name, value, interesting fact? What if you have really shy students?
For longer sources (more than page), they usually access them via our LMS (Canvas) with PDF and create annotation charts in their spiral. Every once in awhile we'll do a longer one via print out, but I don't make them tape them in, typically, as it can get really clunky with the spiral, really fast.
Addressing your 2nd question, we do a survey the first week on top values and interesting/boring facts—so I have them already by the time we fill out rosters! (And they've already shared them with others.) Then I create a slide deck that has all of them written down for each class period, and students "take notes" on each other as we go.
I promise! I have one last logistic question: beside putting the spirals in bins, do you have a method for organizing them in the bins that makes the pick-up the next day more organized (I'm thinking alphabetical)? Or, does it work out for each class/student to put it in the bin and search through it at start of class?
I'm just wondering if it's a little chaotic or how you add some structure to picking them out/putting them away?
I have three smaller/vertical bins for each class period, sub-divided by first letter of last name. (Once I have my classroom set up for the year, I'll try to take a picture and update this post with it!)
I definitely messaged you yesterday about this, but I'm sure I wasn't the only one! I loved this post, and LOVE using spirals. Other than the unit table of contents (which I also have questions about....) what else do you include in your 'spiral set up' ?
I did the index card yesterday and it went SO well! We didn't spend quite enough time on fun/interesting/boring facts, so I've saved that for next week. What activities do you like to help them with the interesting/boring facts?
Love that it went well! Before asking them to write their own facts, I give several examples of each type—and then remind them that they should choose one they are comfortable their other classmates knowing about them.
Following this, we've done different things: meet-n-greets where they move around the room and learn 5+ facts about others; "trivia" the following week where I put up a fact the room takes turns guessing who it is; etc.
Then the facts are included in the spiral notebook roster they tape in along with names/values!
Our school supply list includes two composition books, but I prefer spiral books, and I want them all the same color. So I use my supply money to buy the spirals for writing notebooks. All those shiny covers make me giddy.
Instead of spirals I have composition notebooks (which are provided and also stay in classroom), because pages don’t rip out easily during transporting them in and out of crate.
How long are your periods?
I wish to build in a daily written (instead of verbal) reflection but 45 minutes is such little time for 11 years olds as it is.
Would love to see what rubric you use for notebook checks on organization etc. Thank you!
Our class periods are different based on the day (M = 45 min, T/W = 75 min, Th/Fri = 90 min) and, if you think that is confusing and difficult to navigate...yes, yes it is, haha.
On our 45 minute days there are definitely fewer activities on the individual spiral page compared to the longer block periods, and without question it is difficult to create time for any daily practice with such a short time period.
(I'm still editing our spiral notebook rubric for the upcoming year, but I can message it to you when it's done!)
Now that’s another level schedule! Perhaps high school students are able to navigate it… We have a 30 min day once a week and that throws middle schoolers (and teachers off!). Thank you so much for sharing. I appreciate your efforts and generosity. 🙏😊
I also use composition books for similar reasons (when I've used spirals they tend to get destroyed within the first couple of weeks) but I am not nearly as organized as Marcus is - sometimes Staples has a sale and you can pick these up for as little as 10 cents a notebook. I just bought 60 for the upcoming year because we are going to do some more writing in class. I teach history so we do a lot of opening questions, reactions, primary source work, and other content driven activities. But lots of good tips in here. Thx Marcus!
Hi, I’m curious how you have students organize longer texts, like articles or short stories, into their spirals? Do they tape in individual pages or create pockets? Thank you!
The general rule for me is that if it's a half-page or smaller, we'll tape it in—and otherwise they'll either read from the textbook or access it digitally with their Chromebooks.
With the longer texts, we may create a close-reading table or guide in the spiral as we go—but I do try to avoid over-cluttering the spirals with bulky tape-in's, for sure.
Your ideas and resources are brilliant!! I’ve always used writers notebooks that stay in the classroom, but you’ve given me even more ideas for how to use them! I’m starting my year (tomorrow) with your notecard values lesson—thank you! And I’m wondering if you would mind sharing your roster/values doc? 🙏🏼🩷
Here's a link to create the Google Sheet to record: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jG2UBzd44bhBBj5QD3cnO7PMoedWWC-jCrEHpzoCkUA/preview
Here's a link to a PDF of the page they print out for their spirals:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/11EqZeJUUqYhMP4g70p0pAVvphxRgDwX8/view?usp=sharing
Hope that helps!
New teacher here! I'm going to try this out, but will have to quickly fundraise. The school already started and I'm beginning a month in (after Labor Day).
One basic question: have you found that the 70 page spiral notebook suffices or do you use a different number?
I'd also love to see the rubric that you use.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
70-page makes it through the semester easily, but it can be a bit dicey towards the end of the school year (though the easy fix is to just use old spirals that you can recycle to get one unit's worth of pages for students who need it).
100-page is probably perfect, but I let students make the call for themselves!
That's helpful.
I have two, last process questions:
* for history, we often have primary source handouts like this (https://drive.google.com/file/d/14uC8nL22tSUbkhbU_RJH-lRpd2FIhQFA/view?usp=sharing), resources (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cDCbJDxd0GMjWyg5PZoEJoyg3iymiToA/view?usp=sharing) or worksheets that are a combination (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JbqRf3ycB2yfdJrBqKYNd1M7a7MKP7BW/view?usp=sharing). What do you do with documents that are one page or more? Do students also have a folder for stuff like that (the primary sources or resources)? I'm trying to think through using the spiral notebook for exercises, while still needing to pass out primary source material. Have you basically stopped doing worksheets that are one page or more (like the Manifest Destiny?
* for the class roster, what's your process of having the class fill it out? Do you go around the class and ask each student to share their name, value, interesting fact? What if you have really shy students?
Thanks. (and I promise no more questions).
For longer sources (more than page), they usually access them via our LMS (Canvas) with PDF and create annotation charts in their spiral. Every once in awhile we'll do a longer one via print out, but I don't make them tape them in, typically, as it can get really clunky with the spiral, really fast.
Addressing your 2nd question, we do a survey the first week on top values and interesting/boring facts—so I have them already by the time we fill out rosters! (And they've already shared them with others.) Then I create a slide deck that has all of them written down for each class period, and students "take notes" on each other as we go.
I promise! I have one last logistic question: beside putting the spirals in bins, do you have a method for organizing them in the bins that makes the pick-up the next day more organized (I'm thinking alphabetical)? Or, does it work out for each class/student to put it in the bin and search through it at start of class?
I'm just wondering if it's a little chaotic or how you add some structure to picking them out/putting them away?
I have three smaller/vertical bins for each class period, sub-divided by first letter of last name. (Once I have my classroom set up for the year, I'll try to take a picture and update this post with it!)
I definitely messaged you yesterday about this, but I'm sure I wasn't the only one! I loved this post, and LOVE using spirals. Other than the unit table of contents (which I also have questions about....) what else do you include in your 'spiral set up' ?
For sure! Here's the typical "agenda" on those days (which are our "all 8 period" days, meaning that the classes are only 40 minutes or so.
1. Make sure everyone has spiral notebook and supplies
2. Attach label to front, review classroom core beliefs on it
3. Take "notes" on classmate top values (we keep that column empty) and do some activities around the interesting/boring facts as a class
4. Tape in the table of contents and add the colored-tape tab to the top
5. Do a peer notebook check to make sure everything is set up the way it needs to be
6. Walk through spiral rubric and model where spiral notebooks are stored
Depending on the collaborative activities, this can take all period or you can probably fit in some other stuff!
I did the index card yesterday and it went SO well! We didn't spend quite enough time on fun/interesting/boring facts, so I've saved that for next week. What activities do you like to help them with the interesting/boring facts?
Love that it went well! Before asking them to write their own facts, I give several examples of each type—and then remind them that they should choose one they are comfortable their other classmates knowing about them.
Following this, we've done different things: meet-n-greets where they move around the room and learn 5+ facts about others; "trivia" the following week where I put up a fact the room takes turns guessing who it is; etc.
Then the facts are included in the spiral notebook roster they tape in along with names/values!
Having the core values with the corresponding questions on the front of each notebook is just genius. Thanks so much for sharing!
I love the spiral system…but I go through so much tape!
I mean, we want our learning to be "sticky," right?? 😎
Hehe