My Texas History Notebook
About My Texas History Notebook
My Texas History Notebook lessons are designed to engage students through activities and group-oriented projects. The activities include creating maps, conducting debates, and role playing. Some of the lessons bridge contemporary issues with historical events, such as the lessons Branches of State Government and Immigration to Texas.
This problem-based learning system incorporates preview assignments, multiple intelligences 
teaching strategies, graphically organized notes, and processing assignments that require students to demonstrate their knowledge. The interactive notebook method of learning brings order to students’ work, engages them in content-rich problem-based learning, and creates a record of their accomplishments.
The Interactive Notebook method derives from three pivotal concepts in educational research: Jerome Bruner’s spiral curriculum theory, Howard Garner’s theory of multiple
intelligences, and Elizabeth Cohen’s research on cooperative interaction. In the
interactive notebook style of learning, these concepts are synthesized to draw
students into actively participating in the learning process. This manner of examining the information encourages conceptual thinking versus rote memorization of dates and names.
Most traditional education focuses on logical-mathematical and linguistic skills, but by designing curriculum which appeals to a variety of intelligences, students can tap into their own strengths for assimilating and processing information. Classroom activities motivate students by actively drawing them into the learning process through interactive problem-solving assignments.
