Tuesday, November 8, 2011

note-taking lesson

Some of the standards for ELA cover researching and writing papers.  I did a lesson today on notetaking that seemed to help get them started in the right direction. 

First - I found some general directions on notetaking - skim first, look at headings, captions, structure of passage (bold print words, etc.) before starting to take notes and put it on a Word document so I could project it.

Next - I cut / pasted three short passages on wolves into word document - with web addresses

I put the first page of directions on the screen and just briefly read over them with the kids.  Then I put up the passages.  As per the directions, they could tell me what they needed to do first.  I modeled skimming and thinking aloud about the structure / headings.

Next they got out a sheet of paper and we practiced taking down just facts from what we read.  (Somewhere I saw to explain to them it's like texting: you don't text whole sentences, just facts / key words.) 

We only did the first passage today, so I'm going to move on to the 2nd and 3rd tomorrow.  I think notetaking was becoming a bit clearer.  I hope so; they have a major research paper they will be starting for science in a few weeks!

Judy

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