5. What new questions do you have after reading this chapter? What steps will you take to pursue answers to these questions? After reading chapter 7, I began to think more about the process of students taking notes. This chapter focused on the point that students who understand note taking and note making do better on tests and essays. I used to provide my science students with printed outlines (that they had to fill in) for each chapter. However, my principal suggested that we shouldn't do this as it doesn’t help students learn how to take notes. I do show PowerPoint slides which contain the important information. Is this any different from providing outlines? One example in this chapter was of a teacher who had the students preview the text to develop the outline. This probably would be an improvement as it requires the students to interact with the text more. I usually don’t use the textbook in class but am beginning to think I need to use it more rather than having students read it to review for homework. I did see that the authors encourage the use of explicitly telling the students what was important to write down. I am wondering how much to help students know what to copy down. Also, the students write down the information on my PowerPoint slides without reading it. How can I get them to understand what to write down without trying to copy everything? Improving Adolescent Literacy addresses middle and high school students. Are there particular note taking strategies that need to be taught to middle school students versus high school students? Are they all capable of learning different note taking techniques? Finally, should a whole team agree on a method of note taking or should it be specific for a particular content area? I would like to talk to more teachers and do more research online to find effective note taking systems and strategies in order to find one that would be most useful to my students. I would also like to survey students to determine what they feel helps them the most.
I will never forget my 7th grade life science teacher, Mrs. Rapp. She is one of the first people who taught me how to make an effective outline. I know that there must have been some groundwork laid in elementary school for writing outlines when I wrote a research paper, but Mrs. Rapp very explicitly taught us how to make outlines for our science chapters, and that was work that we did in class with groups as a pre-reading activity every single time we had a new chapter. It seemed tedious, but we always knew it was coming, and our outlines were our study guides for tests. It was also helpful for me to read the chapter all at once in order to take notes on it, and then later I revisited each section when the lessons were taught. Obviously, this was a nice way to lay a foundation of background knowledge for us when it was time for each individual lesson, and it was a good way to have access to vocabulary beforehand as well. Mrs. Rapp might not have had the technology for PowerPoint, but I do remember that she taught from an overhead projector. We also took notes on her overhead slides at different points, especially when we needed visuals.
When I was a freshman in high school, I used my outlining skills to help me through biology, the hardest class with the hardest teacher in my program. She used a college-level textbook and gave quizzes frequently and with no warning. I would never have been successful in that class if I didn’t spend my free time outlining those tedious, jargon-filled chapters. My friends were often jealous and asked for copies of my notes, but that was my hard work, thank you very much. Thanks to Mrs. Rapp, too!
Basically, what I am saying with my story is that I had already come with some critical thinking, paraphrasing and note-taking skills from elementary school. In middle school, Mrs. Rapp refined those skills in a way that taught us how to make organized outlines full of pertinent information. At first, she gave us an outline completely filled out the way that she wanted. We used that first outline as a study guide and learned its value. The next chapter, Mrs. Rapp gave us an outline with some information filled in, like the headings, for example. She left lines for the correct number of details that she was looking for. Mrs. Rapp showed us how to search for important information. She also showed us how to abbreviate and paraphrase to keep the outlines short. With a few skeleton outlines under our belts, we were ready to write our outlines independently, but we were allowed to work in groups in order to assist one another. She scaffolded that process, just as you can do with your students. Another good idea for you might be to choose another set of notes (I think you might choose the simple split-page format, divided into three quadrants for big ideas, important details, and a summary) for the students to write down only the most important information from your PowerPoint slides. Show them to look for important concepts, such as Photosynthesis, and write down the steps of the procedure, as well as questions they have for the future, connections to what they have previously read, and reasons why it is important in context. I hope this helps!
What new questions do have after reading this chapter? What steps will you take to pursue answers to these questions? I feel note-taking is a skill-set that is causing some debate in education lately. Many teachers are taking short-cuts (typing notes for students and handing them out, or giving students partially-filled out notes, etc.) when it comes to addressing this important skill to allow time for other test-related material. However, I have always felt that when students take notes, they own the material more and, in turn, will perform better on mandated tests. My thinking was confirmed in chapter 7 of this week's reading. The reading outlined the importance good noting taking, stating that it helps students pay attention in class, builds connections between material, and teaches organizational skills. It went on to discuss the Cornell notetaking method. I use a very similar method to the Cornell method; it is called an interactive notebook. Students open their notebooks and the right page is for any notes from the teacher and the bottom of the right page is a summary of those notes in the students own words. I check this to be sure students understood the lesson. The left paper is for students to solidify understanding through visuals, comments, and reactions or to generate more questions on the topic. I find the interactive notebook to be a much more effective way for students to take notes because they can really own the material and teachers can use the notebook as a way to check for understanding. The reading pushed my thinking about note-taking further because I never thought about having students assess their notes. The rubric on page 128 is an excellent resource and I will be using it with my students soon. The new questions I have are as follows: 1. Would it also be beneficial to have students' peers grade the notebooks? 2. How can we measure the effectiveness of one note-taking method over another? 3. What if a teacher's prefered method is not beneficial for a student? How can we teach effective note-taking, yet promote flexibility?
Amanda, I was surprised that you took such a strong stance in favor of the interactive notebook. I have never used one myself, but I understand that it was an important push in science classrooms at Smithfield High School during recent years, and my siblings were required to complete them. From their perspectives as students, it was a lengthy waste of time and was not as helpful as it was a nuisance. I was curious to hear from a teacher who has used them, since your experience seems to be so positive. I started looking into the philosophy and research behind interactive notebooks. I discovered that although the theories behind implementation are based in brain research (note-taking/organizational skills, concept mapping, the left/right dichotomy - left side for students’ subjective interpretations, drawings, thoughts; right side for notes that will be on assessments and more objective material - multiple intelligences, etc.), there is little research to prove the benefits or limitations of the interactive notebook.
As you previously stated, it is a pretty trendy concept right now, and I know that a lot of schools are adopting this method. Therefore, I would have to say that I am a bit skeptical of this new trend, especially since there is such a large emphasis on why it is a good idea, but little to no proof its effectiveness. I myself was drawn to some great templates and lesson plans on Pinterest (http://www.pinterest.com/corrys/interactive-notebooks/). I also found some excellent PDF resources for creating, managing and assessing notebooks from the TCI website (look at the bottom of the post).
From a common sense perspective, it makes sense that giving students a clear format for organizing ideas and also getting creative and synthesizing meaning for themselves would be beneficial. It seems like an interactive notebook would make students more engaged in lessons and lectures than a student who is simply writing down what a teacher says verbatim. However, with so many districts jumping on the ISN bandwagon, it makes me wonder if this is just another trend in education or if it really does improve students’ scores. This method also makes me question how high-performing students feel, or students who already have note-taking and organizational skills. Is this just a waste of their time, as my siblings suggested? Would they consider an interactive notebook busywork since they already have the tools to be successful without the extra steps of responding to the lecture and putting it into their own words? I have been searching all over the internet for some data, but I think this concept might be too new for quantitative evidence.
I completely agree with you Amanda when you say that you never thought to have students assess their own notes. This is a new concept for me too. I am definitely going to try it myself, as I love different assessment tools, and I think the students might benefit from this. I also like your mention of peer assessment, and I may just see how that works too. I know that in elementary school the students always get a kick out of correcting each others' papers, so I am assuming this may be something they would enjoy also. I can only assume a student would benefit from having to look over the notes of a classmate, to see if they meet the criteria for successful notetaking. In the process it will actually be reinforcing the criteria for the student performing the assessment.
Moving right along though, I am now intrigued by this "interactive notebook" that you have been using Amanda. I really like the idea of comparing the notes from the teacher with the student's translation/own words. The idea of using this as an assessment interests me, as I have never heard of this. Corinne, I find it so interesting to read that your siblings have had such a negative response to this interactive notebook. The fact that they thought it was really just busy work and a waste of their time leads me wonder how I should address a situation such as that. Having very little experience with interactive notebooks I decided to read up further about them. I found an interesting article at http://theeducatorsroom.com/2013/04/interactive-student-notebooks-my-mathematical-lifesaver/. This article describes very specifically how a math teacher has been using this notebook in her classroom with great success. She does mention that it seems to be most effective in helping the very disorganized students. I'm left with the same question as you Corinne. Is this a complete waste of time for more organized students?
Corrine, Yes, I was part of a cohort of teachers who supported the interactive notebook at SHS and I continue to endorse this type of note taking at GMS. I cannot speak to your siblings' experiences in science classes, but I can confirm that over the years I have had many students express a positive view of the note-taking style. I would first like to speak to the notebook's ability to serve as a check-for-understanding. All compliant students can copy lecture notes down and many teachers see these notes as successfully grasping the material. The interactive notebook allows teachers to use the left-side as a way to correct misunderstandings before an assessment. It serves as a type of exit strategy. Misconceptions are cleared up in real time as the teacher walks around and work is kept right in the child's notebook for safe-keeping and reviewing. Certainly, students of all ability levels can benefit from teacher check-ins. Another reason I am a proponent of the interactive notebook is because of the rich discussions that have been fostered in my classroom after students filled-up the left-side of their books with wonderful questions, drawings, and statements about class topics. These conversations have helped all of my students reach deeper levels of understanding on various ideas. Also, many of my student-artists depictions of our class topics have helped their peers understand and appreciate literature more completely than just my notes. Furthermore, the interactive notebook helps me monitor the quality of my assessments. If I have marked-off that all of my students were able to show mastery of a concept, yet they perform poorly on my assessment, I am left to question the assessment. I would not have this data if my students were just keeping regular lecture notes. Overall, the interactive notebook is a great source of information for a classroom teacher. Again, I cannot speak to your siblings' experiences. I would like to say that sometimes as students we don't realize the value of something a teacher is making us do until much later in life. I also do not think we ask our kids to reflect on their learning enough, so when they are faced with a teacher who does ask them to stop copying and reflect, create, and make meaning, they often feel it is "weird".
6. How might this article influence your teaching? After reading this chapter and a subsequent article on helping students build notetaking skills, I realized that this was not something I have ever really focused on in the classroom myself. I am coming from an elementary education background, and there really was not much in the way of student notetaking in my daily lesson planning. However, I can completely see the value in teaching this skill in a middle school environment. Students in middle school will be taking notes, using them to study from, and referring back to them when participating in classroom discussions. This is obviously a necessary skill, and I guess up until now I have not given much thought to how students were actually accomplishing this task. Fisher and Frey make an interesting point saying we need to “identify for students why their notes can be useful to them later as some students see notetaking as a waste of their time.” I want to be able to assist my students in learning strategies to take notes in the classroom. I want them to look back at their notes and realize that there was a method to the madness. I especially like the examples within this chapter demonstrating uses for different types of notetaking formats. The pottery example on page 122 reminds me of notetaking formats I was encouraged to use in college, and I really like the incorporation of the drawings. I think something like this could work in a science classroom, specifically for classification of things, such as parts of a cell, types of cells etc., where it is helpful to have a picture to put with an unfamiliar word. I have personally used a format such as the split page format on page 134 for notes in college. I would like to try to demonstrate the usage of this format to my students, suggesting they include drawings within their notes whenever possible. This can be especially helpful for visual learners such as me. The dictoglos strategy used by Mr. Herrera in the Fisher and Frey book also sounds promising, and at some point, it would be interesting to use this with my students. The notetaking procedures (figure 7.2, page 124) would be a great tool to start using right at the beginning of the year so that the students have some criteria to look at for their notetaking. I think it would be interesting to use the NOTES assessment and see how well the students are doing. I do not know how practical it will be to use an assessment tool for their notes, but I would definitely try it at least once. This book is one that I will keep and definitely refer back to for new strategies that I have yet to try, or in some cases simply forgot about using myself! When I was trying to decide which question I was going to respond to, I did a search just to randomly see what else I could find on the importance of notetaking. I came across an article at http://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=853, that I thought was pertinent . The author, Heather Rader, definitely agrees with Fisher and Frey, and their opinion about the importance of notetaking. In her article, she used an example of the split page format and demonstrated how it could be used effectively within an elementary school setting which I especially liked. She wrote of her own experiences as a paid note taker in college, and confessed to being bad at it, which was amusing. The most important thing I took away from her article was that teaching notetaking is not just an elementary or just a middle school skill. Ideally it should be addressed at both levels.
Like Michelle, I too come from an elementary background and my first year in a middle school I tried note-taking methods ad-nausea. Similar to Linda, I loved to give out outlines of a chapter or text, and have students fill it in during an in-class review day. I realized a couple of outlines within the school year that I was just handing information over for students to solely memorize, not to really grasp or understand. Since my first year, I have taught how to outline a text and emphasize only important points. Having mastered note taking and note making in college through my own study habits, while helping students prepare for tests, I make sure to model a few things that are extremely important in their studies. I love how chapter seven differentiates between note taking, and note making because many students have told me these two methods are the same thing. Because my classes are mostly sixth grade, I do not do lecturing where students are expected to take notes on their own. The only notes taken during this time are notes or examples put on the board or on the Elmo. Note making is more common my classes and I teach students how to outline a text and correctly prepare an outline. Once an outline is created by students, I then ask them to simplify it even more, without using words (unless it is a quote) from the text. This way, I can see which students understand the reading and which students are still struggling so that I can offer assistance. I have never tried dictoglos but it is something I witnessed in a seventh grade ELA class. This particular teacher used this reading method instead of having students read to themselves. Students were still following along with the text in their literature books, but listening to different tones of characters made the story more engaging and easier for students to follow. While googling the differences between note taking and making, I came upon this website: http://www.wits.ac.za/prospective/studentservices/ccdu/academicskills/11499/note_taking.html. The website offers similar information to our class text, and models particular skill sets, too.
10. Discuss the chapter with someone - I discussed this with a colleague.
While reading this chapter, I realized that our ELA department does not focus very much on teaching note-taking skills. I discussed this with a colleague who pointed out that the social studies and science teachers do a great deal of note-taking, but I began to wonder if they are explicitly TEACHING the skill of note-taking. I will be following up on that with a conversation with my social studies team teacher.
In the meantime, I zoomed in on the aspect of notetaking and the research process. The next unit I will be teaching will include a short research project, so this was very helpful. I liked the way the authors spelled out the steps (on pg. 135) and broke it down clearly. My colleague and I liked the research grid on pg. 137 and intend to use it either as it is or with a bit of tweaking.
Since I know the majority of research the students will be doing with be Internet based, I searched for good checklist for the students and found the following one which we will be using:
http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson983/checklist.pdf I also looked into getting some further guidelines for assisting the students with their research and found great information on the good old OWL site. There are many links on the page pasted below that have so many detailed guides.
My favorite part of the whole research aspect of this chapter was the idea of having stations (pg. 136) where students "practice recording each resource in the correct fashion."
My colleagues were pleased that I did a great deal of substitute teaching for the media specialist in several schools (my secret: I love the library!), so I actually had some background in how to teach students how to record resources for various publications -- we are thinking of incorporating that idea into the beginning aspects of our research unit.
5. What new questions do you have after reading this chapter? What steps will you take to pursue answers to these questions?
ReplyDeleteAfter reading chapter 7, I began to think more about the process of students taking notes. This chapter focused on the point that students who understand note taking and note making do better on tests and essays. I used to provide my science students with printed outlines (that they had to fill in) for each chapter. However, my principal suggested that we shouldn't do this as it doesn’t help students learn how to take notes. I do show PowerPoint slides which contain the important information. Is this any different from providing outlines? One example in this chapter was of a teacher who had the students preview the text to develop the outline. This probably would be an improvement as it requires the students to interact with the text more. I usually don’t use the textbook in class but am beginning to think I need to use it more rather than having students read it to review for homework. I did see that the authors encourage the use of explicitly telling the students what was important to write down. I am wondering how much to help students know what to copy down. Also, the students write down the information on my PowerPoint slides without reading it. How can I get them to understand what to write down without trying to copy everything? Improving Adolescent Literacy addresses middle and high school students. Are there particular note taking strategies that need to be taught to middle school students versus high school students? Are they all capable of learning different note taking techniques? Finally, should a whole team agree on a method of note taking or should it be specific for a particular content area? I would like to talk to more teachers and do more research online to find effective note taking systems and strategies in order to find one that would be most useful to my students. I would also like to survey students to determine what they feel helps them the most.
Linda,
ReplyDeleteI will never forget my 7th grade life science teacher, Mrs. Rapp. She is one of the first people who taught me how to make an effective outline. I know that there must have been some groundwork laid in elementary school for writing outlines when I wrote a research paper, but Mrs. Rapp very explicitly taught us how to make outlines for our science chapters, and that was work that we did in class with groups as a pre-reading activity every single time we had a new chapter. It seemed tedious, but we always knew it was coming, and our outlines were our study guides for tests. It was also helpful for me to read the chapter all at once in order to take notes on it, and then later I revisited each section when the lessons were taught. Obviously, this was a nice way to lay a foundation of background knowledge for us when it was time for each individual lesson, and it was a good way to have access to vocabulary beforehand as well. Mrs. Rapp might not have had the technology for PowerPoint, but I do remember that she taught from an overhead projector. We also took notes on her overhead slides at different points, especially when we needed visuals.
When I was a freshman in high school, I used my outlining skills to help me through biology, the hardest class with the hardest teacher in my program. She used a college-level textbook and gave quizzes frequently and with no warning. I would never have been successful in that class if I didn’t spend my free time outlining those tedious, jargon-filled chapters. My friends were often jealous and asked for copies of my notes, but that was my hard work, thank you very much. Thanks to Mrs. Rapp, too!
Basically, what I am saying with my story is that I had already come with some critical thinking, paraphrasing and note-taking skills from elementary school. In middle school, Mrs. Rapp refined those skills in a way that taught us how to make organized outlines full of pertinent information. At first, she gave us an outline completely filled out the way that she wanted. We used that first outline as a study guide and learned its value. The next chapter, Mrs. Rapp gave us an outline with some information filled in, like the headings, for example. She left lines for the correct number of details that she was looking for. Mrs. Rapp showed us how to search for important information. She also showed us how to abbreviate and paraphrase to keep the outlines short. With a few skeleton outlines under our belts, we were ready to write our outlines independently, but we were allowed to work in groups in order to assist one another. She scaffolded that process, just as you can do with your students. Another good idea for you might be to choose another set of notes (I think you might choose the simple split-page format, divided into three quadrants for big ideas, important details, and a summary) for the students to write down only the most important information from your PowerPoint slides. Show them to look for important concepts, such as Photosynthesis, and write down the steps of the procedure, as well as questions they have for the future, connections to what they have previously read, and reasons why it is important in context. I hope this helps!
What new questions do have after reading this chapter? What steps will you take to pursue answers to these questions?
ReplyDeleteI feel note-taking is a skill-set that is causing some debate in education lately. Many teachers are taking short-cuts (typing notes for students and handing them out, or giving students partially-filled out notes, etc.) when it comes to addressing this important skill to allow time for other test-related material. However, I have always felt that when students take notes, they own the material more and, in turn, will perform better on mandated tests. My thinking was confirmed in chapter 7 of this week's reading.
The reading outlined the importance good noting taking, stating that it helps students pay attention in class, builds connections between material, and teaches organizational skills. It went on to discuss the Cornell notetaking method.
I use a very similar method to the Cornell method; it is called an interactive notebook. Students open their notebooks and the right page is for any notes from the teacher and the bottom of the right page is a summary of those notes in the students own words. I check this to be sure students understood the lesson. The left paper is for students to solidify understanding through visuals, comments, and reactions or to generate more questions on the topic. I find the interactive notebook to be a much more effective way for students to take notes because they can really own the material and teachers can use the notebook as a way to check for understanding.
The reading pushed my thinking about note-taking further because I never thought about having students assess their notes. The rubric on page 128 is an excellent resource and I will be using it with my students soon.
The new questions I have are as follows:
1. Would it also be beneficial to have students' peers grade the notebooks?
2. How can we measure the effectiveness of one note-taking method over another?
3. What if a teacher's prefered method is not beneficial for a student? How can we teach effective note-taking, yet promote flexibility?
Spelling correction on my previous post: preferred
DeleteAmanda, I was surprised that you took such a strong stance in favor of the interactive notebook. I have never used one myself, but I understand that it was an important push in science classrooms at Smithfield High School during recent years, and my siblings were required to complete them. From their perspectives as students, it was a lengthy waste of time and was not as helpful as it was a nuisance. I was curious to hear from a teacher who has used them, since your experience seems to be so positive. I started looking into the philosophy and research behind interactive notebooks. I discovered that although the theories behind implementation are based in brain research (note-taking/organizational skills, concept mapping, the left/right dichotomy - left side for students’ subjective interpretations, drawings, thoughts; right side for notes that will be on assessments and more objective material - multiple intelligences, etc.), there is little research to prove the benefits or limitations of the interactive notebook.
DeleteAs you previously stated, it is a pretty trendy concept right now, and I know that a lot of schools are adopting this method. Therefore, I would have to say that I am a bit skeptical of this new trend, especially since there is such a large emphasis on why it is a good idea, but little to no proof its effectiveness. I myself was drawn to some great templates and lesson plans on Pinterest (http://www.pinterest.com/corrys/interactive-notebooks/). I also found some excellent PDF resources for creating, managing and assessing notebooks from the TCI website (look at the bottom of the post).
From a common sense perspective, it makes sense that giving students a clear format for organizing ideas and also getting creative and synthesizing meaning for themselves would be beneficial. It seems like an interactive notebook would make students more engaged in lessons and lectures than a student who is simply writing down what a teacher says verbatim. However, with so many districts jumping on the ISN bandwagon, it makes me wonder if this is just another trend in education or if it really does improve students’ scores. This method also makes me question how high-performing students feel, or students who already have note-taking and organizational skills. Is this just a waste of their time, as my siblings suggested? Would they consider an interactive notebook busywork since they already have the tools to be successful without the extra steps of responding to the lecture and putting it into their own words? I have been searching all over the internet for some data, but I think this concept might be too new for quantitative evidence.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=5&cad=rja&ved=0CE0QFjAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.teachtci.com%2Fpdf%2Fwebinar_handouts%2FInteractive_Student_Notebook_Getting_Started.pdf&ei=-QcAU5uzB6eqyAGY_YCQBA&usg=AFQjCNHb7tu6OSsUO3m4WQiHj3RqVg9vxA
I completely agree with you Amanda when you say that you never thought to have students assess their own notes. This is a new concept for me too. I am definitely going to try it myself, as I love different assessment tools, and I think the students might benefit from this. I also like your mention of peer assessment, and I may just see how that works too. I know that in elementary school the students always get a kick out of correcting each others' papers, so I am assuming this may be something they would enjoy also. I can only assume a student would benefit from having to look over the notes of a classmate, to see if they meet the criteria for successful notetaking. In the process it will actually be reinforcing the criteria for the student performing the assessment.
DeleteMoving right along though, I am now intrigued by this "interactive notebook" that you have been using Amanda. I really like the idea of comparing the notes from the teacher with the student's translation/own words. The idea of using this as an assessment interests me, as I have never heard of this. Corinne, I find it so interesting to read that your siblings have had such a negative response to this interactive notebook. The fact that they thought it was really just busy work and a waste of their time leads me wonder how I should address a situation such as that. Having very little experience with interactive notebooks I decided to read up further about them. I found an interesting article at
http://theeducatorsroom.com/2013/04/interactive-student-notebooks-my-mathematical-lifesaver/. This article describes very specifically how a math teacher has been using this notebook in her classroom with great success. She does mention that it seems to be most effective in helping the very disorganized students. I'm left with the same question as you Corinne. Is this a complete waste of time for more organized students?
Corrine,
DeleteYes, I was part of a cohort of teachers who supported the interactive notebook at SHS and I continue to endorse this type of note taking at GMS. I cannot speak to your siblings' experiences in science classes, but I can confirm that over the years I have had many students express a positive view of the note-taking style.
I would first like to speak to the notebook's ability to serve as a check-for-understanding. All compliant students can copy lecture notes down and many teachers see these notes as successfully grasping the material. The interactive notebook allows teachers to use the left-side as a way to correct misunderstandings before an assessment. It serves as a type of exit strategy. Misconceptions are cleared up in real time as the teacher walks around and work is kept right in the child's notebook for safe-keeping and reviewing. Certainly, students of all ability levels can benefit from teacher check-ins.
Another reason I am a proponent of the interactive notebook is because of the rich discussions that have been fostered in my classroom after students filled-up the left-side of their books with wonderful questions, drawings, and statements about class topics. These conversations have helped all of my students reach deeper levels of understanding on various ideas. Also, many of my student-artists depictions of our class topics have helped their peers understand and appreciate literature more completely than just my notes.
Furthermore, the interactive notebook helps me monitor the quality of my assessments. If I have marked-off that all of my students were able to show mastery of a concept, yet they perform poorly on my assessment, I am left to question the assessment. I would not have this data if my students were just keeping regular lecture notes. Overall, the interactive notebook is a great source of information for a classroom teacher.
Again, I cannot speak to your siblings' experiences. I would like to say that sometimes as students we don't realize the value of something a teacher is making us do until much later in life. I also do not think we ask our kids to reflect on their learning enough, so when they are faced with a teacher who does ask them to stop copying and reflect, create, and make meaning, they often feel it is "weird".
6. How might this article influence your teaching?
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this chapter and a subsequent article on helping students build notetaking skills, I realized that this was not something I have ever really focused on in the classroom myself. I am coming from an elementary education background, and there really was not much in the way of student notetaking in my daily lesson planning. However, I can completely see the value in teaching this skill in a middle school environment. Students in middle school will be taking notes, using them to study from, and referring back to them when participating in classroom discussions. This is obviously a necessary skill, and I guess up until now I have not given much thought to how students were actually accomplishing this task.
Fisher and Frey make an interesting point saying we need to “identify for students why their notes can be useful to them later as some students see notetaking as a waste of their time.” I want to be able to assist my students in learning strategies to take notes in the classroom. I want them to look back at their notes and realize that there was a method to the madness. I especially like the examples within this chapter demonstrating uses for different types of notetaking formats. The pottery example on page 122 reminds me of notetaking formats I was encouraged to use in college, and I really like the incorporation of the drawings. I think something like this could work in a science classroom, specifically for classification of things, such as parts of a cell, types of cells etc., where it is helpful to have a picture to put with an unfamiliar word. I have personally used a format such as the split page format on page 134 for notes in college. I would like to try to demonstrate the usage of this format to my students, suggesting they include drawings within their notes whenever possible. This can be especially helpful for visual learners such as me. The dictoglos strategy used by Mr. Herrera in the Fisher and Frey book also sounds promising, and at some point, it would be interesting to use this with my students. The notetaking procedures (figure 7.2, page 124) would be a great tool to start using right at the beginning of the year so that the students have some criteria to look at for their notetaking. I think it would be interesting to use the NOTES assessment and see how well the students are doing. I do not know how practical it will be to use an assessment tool for their notes, but I would definitely try it at least once. This book is one that I will keep and definitely refer back to for new strategies that I have yet to try, or in some cases simply forgot about using myself!
When I was trying to decide which question I was going to respond to, I did a search just to randomly see what else I could find on the importance of notetaking. I came across an article at http://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=853, that I thought was pertinent . The author, Heather Rader, definitely agrees with Fisher and Frey, and their opinion about the importance of notetaking. In her article, she used an example of the split page format and demonstrated how it could be used effectively within an elementary school setting which I especially liked. She wrote of her own experiences as a paid note taker in college, and confessed to being bad at it, which was amusing. The most important thing I took away from her article was that teaching notetaking is not just an elementary or just a middle school skill. Ideally it should be addressed at both levels.
Like Michelle, I too come from an elementary background and my first year in a middle school I tried note-taking methods ad-nausea. Similar to Linda, I loved to give out outlines of a chapter or text, and have students fill it in during an in-class review day. I realized a couple of outlines within the school year that I was just handing information over for students to solely memorize, not to really grasp or understand. Since my first year, I have taught how to outline a text and emphasize only important points. Having mastered note taking and note making in college through my own study habits, while helping students prepare for tests, I make sure to model a few things that are extremely important in their studies. I love how chapter seven differentiates between note taking, and note making because many students have told me these two methods are the same thing. Because my classes are mostly sixth grade, I do not do lecturing where students are expected to take notes on their own. The only notes taken during this time are notes or examples put on the board or on the Elmo. Note making is more common my classes and I teach students how to outline a text and correctly prepare an outline. Once an outline is created by students, I then ask them to simplify it even more, without using words (unless it is a quote) from the text. This way, I can see which students understand the reading and which students are still struggling so that I can offer assistance.
ReplyDeleteI have never tried dictoglos but it is something I witnessed in a seventh grade ELA class. This particular teacher used this reading method instead of having students read to themselves. Students were still following along with the text in their literature books, but listening to different tones of characters made the story more engaging and easier for students to follow.
While googling the differences between note taking and making, I came upon this website: http://www.wits.ac.za/prospective/studentservices/ccdu/academicskills/11499/note_taking.html. The website offers similar information to our class text, and models particular skill sets, too.
10. Discuss the chapter with someone - I discussed this with a colleague.
ReplyDeleteWhile reading this chapter, I realized that our ELA department does not focus very much on teaching note-taking skills. I discussed this with a colleague who pointed out that the social studies and science teachers do a great deal of note-taking, but I began to wonder if they are explicitly TEACHING the skill of note-taking. I will be following up on that with a conversation with my social studies team teacher.
In the meantime, I zoomed in on the aspect of notetaking and the research process. The next unit I will be teaching will include a short research project, so this was very helpful. I liked the way the authors spelled out the steps (on pg. 135) and broke it down clearly. My colleague and I liked the research grid on pg. 137 and intend to use it either as it is or with a bit of tweaking.
Since I know the majority of research the students will be doing with be Internet based, I searched for good checklist for the students and found the following one which we will be using:
http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson983/checklist.pdf
I also looked into getting some further guidelines for assisting the students with their research and found great information on the good old OWL site. There are many links on the page pasted below that have so many detailed guides.
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/677/01/
My favorite part of the whole research aspect of this chapter was the idea of having stations (pg. 136) where students "practice recording each resource in the correct fashion."
My colleagues were pleased that I did a great deal of substitute teaching for the media specialist in several schools (my secret: I love the library!), so I actually had some background in how to teach students how to record resources for various publications -- we are thinking of incorporating that idea into the beginning aspects of our research unit.