6.+Note-Taking+Do+It+Yourself!

//6. Note-Taking: Do It Yourself! During Reading - Constructing Strategy: // · **Rationale: ** Effective note taking is one of the most important skills that students can develop. Yet, frequently note taking is left to chance or receives very little attention. The actual recording of the notes is only a small part of the process. The real value of note taking is being able to return to the notes and reacting, adding, organizing, and using these notes in a way that will ultimately lead to deeper construction of meaning and understanding. · **Courses in which it could be implemented: ** I use this constructing or during-reading strategy in all of my classes to teach diverse learners. I use it with the struggling learners, as well as the gifted and regular Language Arts students. However, this strategy is usable for math, science, history, and any course where information is being learned and integrated into the students’ schemas. · **Diverse learners: ** All learning styles benefit from this reading strategy. As said above, all students in all courses where learning is taking place can benefit by using effective note taking skills. It seems many middle schoolers have deficiencies in the area of successful note-taking. Therfore, all learners will benefit from this strategy. · **Procedure: ** 1. The teacher prepares a short verbal or visual presentation or a reading selection to use for modeling note taking. Next, the teacher selects an appropriate note taking system and, based on it, prepares a note-taking guide that is partially completed. (See Stephens and Brown book: page 163 for guide, figure 6.15.) 2. Together the teacher and students complete the note-taking guide. As they work on it, the teacher helps the students to develop their own shorthand system and abbreviations for frequently used words. 3. Then the teacher provides practice in using the other components of the note-taking system, so that students understand that a note-taking system is more than just recording notes. 4. Finally, the teacher provides utilizing experiences wherein the students must actually use their notes to complete a project, solve a problem, or write for publication (See Stephens and Brown book, Chapter 7, for examples). · **Potential Issues: ** We need to teach students that the actual note –taking procedure is not the only part of the process that is important. The reason why we are note-taking is to complete another project, whether it is writing something for publication, studying for a test, or finding a solution to a problem.

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<span style="font-size: 12pt; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Stephens, E. C. & Brown, J. E. (2005). A handbook of content literacy strategies: 125 practical reading and writing ideas. //Strategies for Constructing// (pp. 162-163, chapter 7, p.173). Norwood, MA: Christopher – Gordon.