This great share was contributed to VisualizeYourLearning by Iliana Lourie
Several years ago, I was looking to digitize my science and math notebooks and ran into a little gold mine. I found The Scientific Teacher website and discovered the Digital Science notebooks and Learning Logs that revolutionized my practice. I created several variations (first with Zoho Docs and then with OneNote) inspired by The Scientific Teacher’s digital notebook, which allowed me to provide students with timely feedback.
The school adopted the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) to help students improve their English Language Proficiency levels and implemented student-led conferences (SLC) quarterly. Both of these were factors in the students’ notebooks’ adaptation, which directly connected to the sections in students’ Learning Logs:
- Vocabulary
- Essential Objectives (which were a reflection of Essential Questions, but formatted deliberately as objectives to support English Language Learners)
- Journal (Inquiry-based activities or laboratories)
The elements in the first two sections were aligned to the NGSS, providing necessary background knowledge and vocabulary to meet the standards. The third section of the students’ notebook was dedicated to activities that explicitly developed the crosscutting concepts and specific vocabulary of the NGSS. This section encouraged students to build a logical and scientifically-based view of the world around them.
The elements in the first two sections were aligned to the NGSS, providing necessary background knowledge and vocabulary to meet the standards. The third section of the students’ notebook was dedicated to activities that explicitly developed the crosscutting concepts and specific vocabulary of the NGSS. This section encouraged students to build a logical and scientifically-based view of the world around them.
Tracking their progress became a classroom routine. Every Friday (or almost every Friday), students were given time at the end of class to record their grades into their learning logs and reflect. To help them with the reflection, each section of the learning log had a hyperlink to relevant activities addressing the learning goals such as Quizlets, Kahoots, Nearpod lessons, readings, or simulations.
At first, students struggled with the reflection piece of the log and sometimes left my classroom without recording any reflections, yet I was determined to make this part of our classroom culture. I would go back to their Learning Logs and note who needed support and took a bit more instructional time in the beginning when the process was introduced.
After a while, the kids caught on and were able to do it more independently. Throughout the year, I would also change it up a bit and pair up students to brainstorm ways to enhance their learning. Some of these conversations were amazing! Students can come up with very creative ideas on how to help their friends improve their grades and meet their learning goals. Students could also track a Personal Goal in their log. To make sure this was an academic, content-specific personal goal, I scaffolded SMART goals aligned with the expectations for Student Led Conferences. It didn’t feel like additional work because instead of scrambling for evidence at the last minute, they were always able to refer back to their Personal Goal graph in Science class. A bonus was the communication established with parents. I witnessed many SLC’s where parents who came from a different educational background than their children struggled to understand their children’s explanation during these conferences. Yet, they could easily understand a rising graph or changing colors, which prompted meaningful conversations with their children about their learning.
The notebook on its own was a great tool for me to evaluate student learning. I was able to assess my students’ responses in real-time and make any necessary corrections through feedback promptly. The transformational power of the notebook, however, was the connection to the students’ learning log. Initially motivated to provide students with a tool to use during SLC’s, the Learning Logs proved to be a much more essential component of students’ learning.
In my experience, data’s transformational power is evident when we teach children to interpret, analyze, and take action steps based on their data observations and goals. This way, we can educate them to be critical thinkers responsible for their learning and actions.
Iliana Lourie
Iliana is an Instructional Technology Coach and K-12 Technology Coordinator for Shanghai American School – Puxi Campus. She has taught Biology, Chemistry, Math, and Middle School Science. Iliana is passionate about Teaching & Learning and using instructional technology to reimagine our classrooms. Connect with Iliana on twitter @IlianaLourie.