Welcome to Exploring Education Through Technology! We will use Robert Marzano's Classroom Instruction that Works as a vehicle to generate conversation!
Step 1: Introduce Yourself! Not only your name, but title and school.
Step 2: Describe any experience you have had with blogs. It's okay if this is your first blogging journey!
Step 3: Simply interact! Don't hesitate to comment.
I liked this informative chapter -- since I have my students write newscast, commericals and public service announcements the way they research and write a script has to be direct and to the point. My students use several of the frames explained. I think used the frames in having my students write the newscast -- they were able to get to the point faster and make their report clearer.
I also use the informal outline in the brainstorming production meeting each of the crews have. They have to plan out their work before they are able to start writing a script. This is a very important area and I am glad the book addressed it
Coming from an English teacher background, I find that in the classroom, this (summarizing and notetaking) is certainly becoming a forgotton skillset. I find sometimes teachers focus on the "checking off" of notes instead of using the notetaking/summarizing as a vehicle for students to process what they've read, listened to, etc. I have even observed teachers who print off their own notes for students instead of using the opportunity to have students create their own template for learning. In the more successful classrooms, I have seen the Cornell notetaking system work beautifully.
It is always interesting to me how education continually revisits the same research and theory from decade to decade. The strategies in this chapter are no exception.
The information in this chapter prompted me to look at some of the research surrounding strategic note taking and students with disabilities. It seems that students with mild disabilities including those with mild mental retardation can realize positive effects from learning to utilize note-taking strategies. I have found, however, that students with moderate to significant disabilities have considerable problems summarizing what they read, even if it is only one sentence. They simply do not have the ability to analyze text.
One note-taking strategy I use with students who are included in the general education classroom, yet functioning more than 2 grade levels below their typical peers is a note-taking form. Similar to the “strategic note-taking form” reference in the literature, this form provides structure for the student as he/she scans the text for information. I have found that this note-taking format works best in content areas where illustrations (charts, pictures, graphs, etc.) are used. These graphic supports enable students to remain actively engaged, even though they may not have the cognitive ability to grasp the grade-level content.
I couldn't agree more that this is a higher order thinking skill! So many of my students aren't able to synthesize the information they read or hear and keep the kernels for use later. This is a huge problem, we know, because in high school and college especially, professors don't go slowly and repeat themselves often!!
I, too, use a note taking guide to aid my students in gathering information. The level of success is varied, but generally the students can follow that format. I've also used an outline of my notes to guide my upper level students as they attempt to take notes. Again, the level of success, varies... :/ This is an area I know I need to do a better job of teaching! Judging by what I see in the classroom, we all need to make a conscience effort to introduce, practice, and evaluate this skill!
Wanted to add that while I see more success with guides and outlines, I don't see how to use the webbing note taking method as successfully. I use webs as a brainstroming tool AFTER the notes have been given and discussion has taken place. I use webs as a graphic organizer in the prewriting phase of writing, but really don't think i could use this format well and have less idea about how to teach this strategy and have it be effective for my students. Anyone have a success story with this to share...I like to learn!
Personally, I have always been an over achiever when it comes to taking notes. Then I would look at what I had and try to make sense of it....which usually I couldn't. The bad habit of asking, "what do I need to get from this" had already formed as well, and I realized this when a professor once told me, "read the passage, take what you need, and leave the rest behind." How did I know what I needed? Well, I thought about that and it started to make a lot of sense. I learned that I had to apply the "what I need" part to the particular situation and then go from there. Once I understood this valuable nugget of gold, I began to pass it on to my students. When they ask, "what do I need to get from this" I tell them to apply that statement to their particular situation and go from there. If they understand one part more so than another, maybe they need to concentrate their note taking on the part they don't understand. So far this has worked well.
Being in media I don't really give a lot of notes, however I do quiz the kids from time to time on things we have covered like Internet Safety, copyright, searching on the Internet, some of the MS programs, Dewey, etc. I have noticed that some of them take notes, some do not, and other are totally oblivious to what is going on. Anyway, the note takers usually get the higher scores :-) I am an advocate for whichever style of notetaking works based on the situation. As far as webbing...haven't tried that and when I looked at it I was totally confused. Less is better!!
In kindergarten I have not found a good way to make "note taking" work for me. I do use a lot of summarizing with the children. I often ask them to retell to me in a simplier, easier way what I have told them. I do have some EC children that I had them make picture summaries or cues for them to be able to recall what information they have remembered from stories. I guess for my age level I begin a lot of the processes needed for note taking. I have them draw a lot of pictures sometimes while I am reading a story and when we complete the story I have them tell about what they have drawn and how it relates to the story we have read. This tells me what they saw as important information from the story that was read. I often do this with dry erase boards and more often with fairy tales that way most of them do have "prior" knowledge to draw from. I love webbing. Even my kindergartens relate important information from the web. I webbed "Fairy Tales" on time and they even put "once upon a time" in a bubble because of the relationship to that beginning and all the fairy tales they had heard (meets SCOS for kindergarten also, one of the pluses). Mine are more whole group led to summarize but in kindergarten this is all I feel is developmentally appropriate. I have even outlined with them on occasion but it really abstract for them to understand. At this age they work better with picture summarizing and graphics.
The two concepts discussed in this chapter are some of the most important for being successful in school. Summarizing and note taking help you in all subject areas. Personally speaking, I was a very good note taker, but I had a hard time summarizing. My mind works better with details and it was always hard to decide what should be left out. I have learned a lot for myself and ways to help my students, but some techniques are difficult in the PE setting. It is hard to take notes without paper or pencil. However, we do summarizing quite often. I will ask students to tell me in two sentences what was the most important thing they learned in class that day. This helps them to think about the "big picture."
I find myself sitting in a hotel in Greensboro having less trouble doing this than at home or school. ha ha! I have had blocks at school and still dealing with dial-up at home. But, I am trying to get caught up. Summarizing and note taking has become a critical issue to address at the beginning of each semester. I admit I have been one of those in the past to give students the handouts of PPTs and lectures to give them a good copy so that they may add notes during the lecture, highlight key points, etc. But, I find that they pay less attention because it was done for them. Due to the frequency of change in the information in my curriculum, I do not use a classroom set of textbooks. The students have to create their own textbook as we go. Therefore, summarizing and notetaking has become a critical strategy for success. We spend lots of time at the beginning of the semester looking at information and teaching them to delete the unnecessary, pick out the essential and put in their own words those difficult to understand. This has been very successful. There are still some who grumble every day and want to be "spoon fed".
Like many of you, I am a huge fan of note-taking. I really ENJOY it, and use it in many different areas of my life. Just today in Sunday School, my teacher and I were talking about how notetaking helps us to process the information we are hearing/seeing. I saw a lady taking notes during the sermon today and it inspired me to try it also.
I was inspired by Donna's use of webbing in her Kindergarten classroom. I had never thought about doing that before. I would think that after webbing a while the students in my class would really get into it. I can remember webbing in the upper elementary grades on the overhead projector, and how much it helped me. Sometimes it was a little confusing, but overall I enjoyed them.
Although the students in our class cannot "take notes" yet, they do summarize information often. I love to hear them summarize a book they've read, many of them can do that quite well.
Ronda, I liked your example of taking away "kernels" of information from what we hear and using them later. This is exactly what notetaking is. All in all, it is important for us as teachers to not only teach but to model these important skills to our students. I enjoyed reading everybody's responses on this topic :)
I also agree with Donna on webbing and how pictures cues, etc. have been more successful for me in PreK. I always offer the information to my students and then also ask them to tell me as Donna does what the information was about and what they found was important. Some of them can summarize or retell a story with detail and accuracy, while others have more difficulty of course.
I didn't realize that there were so many different types of summarizing/note taking. I think what impressed me the most about this chapter was gathering so much new information. I can definitely see the importance of these skills in older grades. I always wanted to take as much information down as possible because I never knew what was most important. As I have gotten older it has become much easier to pick out the underlying "theme" if you will. But this chapter was very enlightening for me. I wish I had this information when I first started college. It would have been helpful as a Freshman.
I liked this informative chapter -- since I have my students write newscast, commericals and public service announcements the way they research and write a script has to be direct and to the point. My students use several of the frames explained. I think used the frames in having my students write the newscast -- they were able to get to the point faster and make their report clearer.
ReplyDeleteI also use the informal outline in the brainstorming production meeting each of the crews have. They have to plan out their work before they are able to start writing a script. This is a very important area and I am glad the book addressed it
Coming from an English teacher background, I find that in the classroom, this (summarizing and notetaking) is certainly becoming a forgotton skillset. I find sometimes teachers focus on the "checking off" of notes instead of using the notetaking/summarizing as a vehicle for students to process what they've read, listened to, etc. I have even observed teachers who print off their own notes for students instead of using the opportunity to have students create their own template for learning. In the more successful classrooms, I have seen the Cornell notetaking system work beautifully.
ReplyDeleteIt is always interesting to me how education continually revisits the same research and theory from decade to decade. The strategies in this chapter are no exception.
ReplyDeleteThe information in this chapter prompted me to look at some of the research surrounding strategic note taking and students with disabilities. It seems that students with mild disabilities including those with mild mental retardation can realize positive effects from learning to utilize note-taking strategies. I have found, however, that students with moderate to significant disabilities have considerable problems summarizing what they read, even if it is only one sentence. They simply do not have the ability to analyze text.
One note-taking strategy I use with students who are included in the general education classroom, yet functioning more than 2 grade levels below their typical peers is a note-taking form. Similar to the “strategic note-taking form” reference in the literature, this form provides structure for the student as he/she scans the text for information. I have found that this note-taking format works best in content areas where illustrations (charts, pictures, graphs, etc.) are used. These graphic supports enable students to remain actively engaged, even though they may not have the cognitive ability to grasp the grade-level content.
I couldn't agree more that this is a higher order thinking skill! So many of my students aren't able to synthesize the information they read or hear and keep the kernels for use later. This is a huge problem, we know, because in high school and college especially, professors don't go slowly and repeat themselves often!!
ReplyDeleteI, too, use a note taking guide to aid my students in gathering information. The level of success is varied, but generally the students can follow that format. I've also used an outline of my notes to guide my upper level students as they attempt to take notes. Again, the level of success, varies... :/
This is an area I know I need to do a better job of teaching! Judging by what I see in the classroom, we all need to make a conscience effort to introduce, practice, and evaluate this skill!
Wanted to add that while I see more success with guides and outlines, I don't see how to use the webbing note taking method as successfully. I use webs as a brainstroming tool AFTER the notes have been given and discussion has taken place. I use webs as a graphic organizer in the prewriting phase of writing, but really don't think i could use this format well and have less idea about how to teach this strategy and have it be effective for my students. Anyone have a success story with this to share...I like to learn!
ReplyDeletePersonally, I have always been an over achiever when it comes to taking notes. Then I would look at what I had and try to make sense of it....which usually I couldn't. The bad habit of asking, "what do I need to get from this" had already formed as well, and I realized this when a professor once told me, "read the passage, take what you need, and leave the rest behind." How did I know what I needed? Well, I thought about that and it started to make a lot of sense. I learned that I had to apply the "what I need" part to the particular situation and then go from there. Once I understood this valuable nugget of gold, I began to pass it on to my students. When they ask, "what do I need to get from this" I tell them to apply that statement to their particular situation and go from there. If they understand one part more so than another, maybe they need to concentrate their note taking on the part they don't understand. So far this has worked well.
ReplyDeleteBeing in media I don't really give a lot of notes, however I do quiz the kids from time to time on things we have covered like Internet Safety, copyright, searching on the Internet, some of the MS programs, Dewey, etc. I have noticed that some of them take notes, some do not, and other are totally oblivious to what is going on. Anyway, the note takers usually get the higher scores :-) I am an advocate for whichever style of notetaking works based on the situation. As far as webbing...haven't tried that and when I looked at it I was totally confused. Less is better!!
In kindergarten I have not found a good way to make "note taking" work for me. I do use a lot of summarizing with the children. I often ask them to retell to me in a simplier, easier way what I have told them. I do have some EC children that I had them make picture summaries or cues for them to be able to recall what information they have remembered from stories. I guess for my age level I begin a lot of the processes needed for note taking. I have them draw a lot of pictures sometimes while I am reading a story and when we complete the story I have them tell about what they have drawn and how it relates to the story we have read. This tells me what they saw as important information from the story that was read. I often do this with dry erase boards and more often with fairy tales that way most of them do have "prior" knowledge to draw from. I love webbing. Even my kindergartens relate important information from the web. I webbed "Fairy Tales" on time and they even put "once upon a time" in a bubble because of the relationship to that beginning and all the fairy tales they had heard (meets SCOS for kindergarten also, one of the pluses). Mine are more whole group led to summarize but in kindergarten this is all I feel is developmentally appropriate. I have even outlined with them on occasion but it really abstract for them to understand. At this age they work better with picture summarizing and graphics.
ReplyDeleteI am sorry for the mistakes. Me and my children were all sick last week and I am eager to share.
ReplyDeleteThe two concepts discussed in this chapter are some of the most important for being successful in school. Summarizing and note taking help you in all subject areas. Personally speaking, I was a very good note taker, but I had a hard time summarizing. My mind works better with details and it was always hard to decide what should be left out. I have learned a lot for myself and ways to help my students, but some techniques are difficult in the PE setting. It is hard to take notes without paper or pencil. However, we do summarizing quite often. I will ask students to tell me in two sentences what was the most important thing they learned in class that day. This helps them to think about the "big picture."
ReplyDeleteI find myself sitting in a hotel in Greensboro having less trouble doing this than at home or school. ha ha! I have had blocks at school and still dealing with dial-up at home. But, I am trying to get caught up.
ReplyDeleteSummarizing and note taking has become a critical issue to address at the beginning of each semester. I admit I have been one of those in the past to give students the handouts of PPTs and lectures to give them a good copy so that they may add notes during the lecture, highlight key points, etc. But, I find that they pay less attention because it was done for them.
Due to the frequency of change in the information in my curriculum, I do not use a classroom set of textbooks. The students have to create their own textbook as we go. Therefore, summarizing and notetaking has become a critical strategy for success. We spend lots of time at the beginning of the semester looking at information and teaching them to delete the unnecessary, pick out the essential and put in their own words those difficult to understand. This has been very successful. There are still some who grumble every day and want to be "spoon fed".
Like many of you, I am a huge fan of note-taking. I really ENJOY it, and use it in many different areas of my life. Just today in Sunday School, my teacher and I were talking about how notetaking helps us to process the information we are hearing/seeing. I saw a lady taking notes during the sermon today and it inspired me to try it also.
ReplyDeleteI was inspired by Donna's use of webbing in her Kindergarten classroom. I had never thought about doing that before. I would think that after webbing a while the students in my class would really get into it. I can remember webbing in the upper elementary grades on the overhead projector, and how much it helped me. Sometimes it was a little confusing, but overall I enjoyed them.
Although the students in our class cannot "take notes" yet, they do summarize information often. I love to hear them summarize a book they've read, many of them can do that quite well.
Ronda, I liked your example of taking away "kernels" of information from what we hear and using them later. This is exactly what notetaking is. All in all, it is important for us as teachers to not only teach but to model these important skills to our students. I enjoyed reading everybody's responses on this topic :)
I also agree with Donna on webbing and how pictures cues, etc. have been more successful for me in PreK. I always offer the information to my students and then also ask them to tell me as Donna does what the information was about and what they found was important. Some of them can summarize or retell a story with detail and accuracy, while others have more difficulty of course.
ReplyDeleteI didn't realize that there were so many different types of summarizing/note taking. I think what impressed me the most about this chapter was gathering so much new information. I can definitely see the importance of these skills in older grades. I always wanted to take as much information down as possible because I never knew what was most important. As I have gotten older it has become much easier to pick out the underlying "theme" if you will. But this chapter was very enlightening for me. I wish I had this information when I first started college. It would have been helpful as a Freshman.