Tape vs. Glue vs. Staples

Attaching pages to the notebook was a daily occurrence in my class. I have read on other blogs that claim it's best to have students attach as many pages as possible at one time, but my planning was never far enough in advance to have students attach pages for multiple lessons at one time. (I read about one rockstar teacher who has students attach all the pages for a semester during the first day of school. Fabulous! I hope to get to that point soon.)

The entrance procedure for my class was:

1. Read the sign outside my door, which communicates the number of handouts and supplies needing to be picked up from the supply table (located inside the door as you walk in)
2. Pick up the handouts and supplies and sit in assigned seat
3. Update table of contents (my example was projected on the screen using a document camera)
4. Attach handouts to appropriate pages using the glue picked up from the supply table

Step 4 is where the flow broke down for me during the first few weeks of class. Glue sticks were a source of anxiety: will I have enough glue sticks?; will the glue last long enough?; how will I afford to buy more if it isn't on sale?.

I also learned quickly that students needed to be taught how to glue. Yes, I taught 10th grade and yes, they have experience gluing but no, that gluing was not uniform and was causing me stress! The lack of uniformity in gluing caused a number of challenges:

1. Some students took forever to glue because they methodically (slowly) covered the entire page in glue.
2. Some students glued extremely quickly. This posed two problems: they wasted time waiting for other students to finish and their pages started to fall out due to lack of appropriate adhesive.
3. Some students refused to use glue (they claimed aversion to stickiness) and spent precious moments in search of a stapler or waiting for a student to finish using the stapler.
4. Some students preferred tape, and like the staple-preference students, spent time looking/waiting for the tape dispenser. If tape dispenser was empty, chaos ensued.

So I taught a short lesson on gluing. I taught my students to use their glue properly: a rectangle around the border of the page and a giant X in the middle. I demonstrated and modeled this, then enforced it with an iron fist.

I still had tape and staple hold-outs. I purchased more staplers and more tape dispensers, and put these on the supply table. I had a deal with a small group of glue stick protesters: if you pick up your page-attaching tool of choice from the supply table as you walk into class, and if you can attach pages quickly and efficiently using your preferred method, then I won't force you to use glue.

Most anxiety was alleviated by these solutions. But I'm still hoping to get to a point where we attach all handouts for an entire unit in one sitting.

Maintaining the Table of Contents

At the beginning of each unit of study, my students started a new table of contents. The format appears below.

I organized the table of contents the way I was taught to do so - with right and left sides to chronicle the different types of assignments present in the notebook. Also included: the title of the unit and dates.

Everyday when students entered class, my example table of contents was projected on the board (using a document camera and LCD projector). Their first task was to update their own table of contents, then attach handouts or set-up cornell notes appropriately.

On the end of year survey, a student gave some excellent feedback regarding this set-up. She suggested a main table of contents at the beginning of the notebook to outline each of the subsections. This idea is worth thinking through, and definitely something I'm trying to decide on for next year. Another modification for next year - using the table of contents as a tracker. Instead of setting up the table in two columns, I might use one column and then include a far section for "grade earned" by the student on that particular notebook page.

Including a grade earned brings me to my next point about the table of contents. The student example below reveals a check mark and a grade of 100%.

This raises a lot of questions as I reflect on last year's notebook.

• Why did I give a grade for the table of contents? I won't try to justify giving a grade, because at this point I admit that was a bad idea. I was thinking that giving students a grade for the table of contents would hold them accountable to keeping it maintained and completed.
• What skill was I assessing for this assignment? Apparently I was assessing the ability to complete a mundane task (copying an example). Bummer.
• How do I motivate students to maintain a table of contents and how do I enforce non-compliance? I'm still thinking through the answer to this. Suggestions appreciated.
• Is it really important for students to maintain an organized table of contents? I would argue that yes, the most organized notebooks I saw were ones that included a complete table of contents. I think a student's diligence in completing the main page for the unit was a behavior that stemmed from their intrinsic motivation to comply, perhaps regardless of whether it was graded or not.
• Why didn't all my students earn 100% for this "assignment"? There is investment and classroom management tied into this answer. Not all of my students were invested in my class and in using the notebook. Unfortunately, I failed to effectively portray the purpose and usefulness of the notebook to that group of students. Also unfortunately, I often assumed that if a student was starting to glue in handouts, then they of course must have already updated their table of contents. Not exactly.

There are many things to think about as I structure next year's table of contents. I plan to spend more effort on investing students in using the notebook and explaining its purpose. Possibilities include: posting my example on a class website (or on a bulletin board in my classroom) and allowing students to maintain the table of contents for homework or printing and copying a table of contents "tracker" and essentially doing the table of contents for students (I prefer the former).