Rethinking Interactive Math Journals

When interactive math journals or notebooks first became popular, I was all in.  I would create resources for my students math journals.  Those resources  required my students to assemble before placing it in the notebook.  My thinking, and everyone else’s, was that by having students assemble the resource, they would naturally absorb the information while their busy hands cut and paste.

It didn’t take me long, however, to realize that very little, if any at all, information was being ‘absorbed’.  Instead, what was happening, was like a nightmare!  Some students worked at a snail-pace cutting out pieces.  Some pieces were accidentally cut or worse yet, seemed to disappear without a trace.  Glue was everywhere AND so much precious time was being wasted in what could be called a glorified cut and paste activity!  And to make matters worse, when all the chaos was over, a number of students had assembled the resource incorrectly making the finished product useless.

What was I doing wrong?  Why was everyone else raving about these type of resources in a student’s math journal?  Honestly, I have to believe that I was not alone in my experience and that many others were experiencing the same problems.  I knew that something in my classroom had to change, if not for my own sanity.

My solution? Create a resource that has all the necessary parts already in place.  Run a copy, distribute to students, have them fold and maybe make a few simple snips and then place in their math journal.  

By making the prep and placement of the resource in a math journal something that can be done easily and quickly, allowed an ample amount of time to both model and practice using the resource.  As a result, most of my fold-ups, now come with a ready-made option and a cut and assemble option.  You decide what works best in your classroom.  You know which one I’ll be using!

Check out my ‘Types of Fractions Fold-Up’ resource which provides both a ready-made and a assemble fold-up.