The "Science Notebook Rubric" may be used in multiple ways. It can be used as a formative or summative assessment for teachers to assess a students' abilities to organize, model, and record ideas and concepts they've learned. The "student friendly language" version can also be used as a self-evaluative tool for the students to check if their notebook's information is accurate and whether they have clearly presented the main ideas of various lessons or activities. Using notebooks for academic content areas allow students to communicate their understanding of concepts taught. Explaining this rubric before a lesson or activity enables the students to fully understand what is expected from them while writing in their journals or notebooks, and how they will be assessed. I plan on sharing this rubric with my grade level and across grade levels at our site to encourage continuity in the use and assessment of student notebooks. I also plan on slightly modifying this same rubric to be applicable to our students' math journals as well.
