Notebooks are commonly used in middle school classrooms as a place for students to record information delivered via lecture, classroom discussion, or independent work. A primary reason teachers ask students to use notebooks is to capture and organize information. In many cases, students are expected to use these tools with little direction, follow-through, or support; they are solely responsible for deciding what to put in their notebook, managing and caring for it, and knowing when and how to use its contents (Klentschy, 2010). For students unsure of how to do this independently, conventional notebooks can actually create a barrier to learning. This article examines how a specific type of notebook--an academic notebook--can help promote in-depth academic learning. The authors describe how academic notebooks were used with a diverse seventh grade social studies class engaged in a multi-month investigation of the Civil Rights Movement.