Teaching note taking skills

[newhsmommy]

Does anyone use a "program" or method for teaching notetaking to elementary kids? I'm homeschooling my 2nd grader and will be bring my 6th grade son home next year. I realized after talking to other HS and school friends that the kids are expected to "take notes" however, they are not "taught" how to do this. I was hoping to introduce this into our summer with both the kids. Thanks!!

[Linda S in Canada]

One method I found helped came (I think) from the IEW writing program. I didn't actually use this program, but read about how they encouraged children to take three words from each sentence they read, to make 'notes.' I got my children to practice reading simple text, taking three words or so from each sentence and writing them down that they could use to 'remind' them later what was said. The next step of course, would be to write a paragraph summary using these notes. My kids quickly got the hang of this, and were then able to do it more quickly, not just reading text but listening to someone speaking.

[Stacia]

http://www.nwlg.org/pages/resources/knowitall/studyskills/notes.htm

 

http://www.teach-nology.com/cgi-bin/sq3r.cgi

 

Also, I haven't seen this, but I have seen others recommend The Teaching Company's course about being a SuperStar Student:

http://www.teach12.com/ttcx/CourseDescLong2.aspx?cid=140

[Pata]

This is a post that I copied from here, I believe that it was Ria who posted it...

 

In whatever history book you are having your child read, assign a few pages. You read them, too, so you can demonstrate note-taking w/ your child. Sit down and cover the material together, paragraph by paragraph. Ask your child what the most important information in the paragraph is, and then write it down. Do this for the entire reading assignment - discussing the information and then writing it down. In this way you will model exactly what you are looking for for your child.

 

After a few days of this, have the child take notes on his own. Go over them together and check her work. Is there too much detail? If so, explain that you just want the main points, and show her which information is not needed. Is there too little information? Discuss this and have her add to the notes.

 

Once you are satisfied w/ her work, she can take notes on her own. I usually look over the notes a few times a week just to keep my finger on what the kids are doing.

 

This is such an easy way to learn note-taking. Good luck!

[Penny]

I just starting working with my 11 yr old on taking notes. We are using the Cornell format in that we use the cue column with important details beside each cue.

 

http://lsc.sas.cornell.edu/LSC_Resources/cornellsystem.pdf

 

This week ds began taking notes from SOTW and from a historical story book. I modeled taking notes from each and then set him loose to do it by himself. What I noticed is that this is more of an advanced skill that I had previously thought. For the story book I had to encourage him to not write down too much detail. Then, when he took notes on SOTW (which is very condensed), his notes were much too sparse! So, I am going to continue modeling note taking for quite a while, asking each time as we go through the books, "What do you think we should write?" and simply keep up the discussion. This is not going to happen overnight. Also, I would hesitate to begin this with a 2nd grader.

 

Blessings,

 

Penny