Interactive Notebooks: Rubric and Grading

Hi, everyone! It's Jaime from Bright Concepts 4 Teachers! I am so excited to be blogging for the first time here at Who's Who and Who's New!

I LOVE using interactive notebooks in my primary classroom. I teach 2nd grade and started using interactive notebooks for math. Now, I also use them for reading and language standards. Today, I am going to share with you how I grade and use rubrics when it comes to interactive notebooks. 

It is important to understand what I am going to share with you, works for me and my students in my classroom. Please take the tips and tricks and use the ones that will work for YOU. I use interactive notebooks a couple times a week in my classroom, depending on our schedule. I DO NOT grade EVERY SINGLE page. First, I think that is humanly impossible and it does not use our teaching time to the best interest of our students. I always let the students know ahead of time if the page is going to be graded. I also only grade pages that I feel have been thoroughly taught and practiced. 

At the beginning of the year, when we are setting up our interactive notebooks, each student glues a rubric to the inside front cover of their notebook. We go over the rubric step-by-step so everyone has clear expectations. As a reminder, I also display the rubric on the board when pages are being graded. I use a 4-point star rubric that matches our other classroom grades and report card grades. 

This is the rubric I use in my classroom. If you would like a copy, click the picture or HERE to grab your FREE copy. 

When the students feel they have completed a page or I have given them PLENTY of time to complete the page, I have them SELF grade their work based on the rubric and write one thing they would like to do better next time. Then, I grade and comment on the student page. This strategy forces the students to focus on their work quality, performance, and self reflect. Sometimes, I just have a quick conversation with each student about their work effort instead of them writing down their reflection. It just depends how the day is going and if there are any time constraints.

This student gave herself 3-stars. When we reflected together, she said she thought she could be neater and she wasn't 100% sure she placed all the words in the correct pockets. I explained that she did a beautiful job and she needs to trust herself and her knowledge. Yes, we can always improve, but she was hard on herself. So sweet! 

This is another example of a student who had complete understanding of the concept being reviewed, but was also able to express ways they wanted to improve next time.

If a student is struggling and their grade is 1 or 2 stars, I always follow up with them. Sometimes I pair them up with a stronger student to help them finish or fix the page they are struggling with. I also pull a small group of students aside and work with them on the interactive notebook page and concept when the rest of the class is working independently. 

I hope this post has helped you with grading and using rubrics and interactive notebooks in your classroom. If you would like to take a closer look at the math, reading, and language interactive notebooks I have in my TpT store for grades K-4, click HERE.