Students spend about 15 minutes explaining the unit of study in the book with their parents, and the parents are given a rubric to evaluate the work and make comments. I was amazed to see the comments from the parents about the notebooks. It opens up communication and makes the process more accountable for the students. Parents often write a thank you for involving them. This is particularly true in the higher grades.
Students are at first intimidated about having to even speak with their parents.
However, the notebooks that I collected after the parent evaluation were more complete than usual. In the Interactive Student Notebook, use colored tabs for each new unit and attach them to each new title page. Then hold a title page art show and contest to recognize good work and validate student effort. I let my students vote on the best title page in the class and then give that student a few extra-credit points. This notebook never leaves the room and has a special place in the room where it is kept.