Fisher & Frey Ch. 7: Note-taking and Note making

Note-taking 101, NoteMAKING 102 :)

This chapter was pretty informative. I learned many ways to incorporate teaching students to take and make notes in the content areas.  There are many ways to take notes and the best ways depend on what the topic/content area is.  A few things stood out to me that I read and I would like to focus on those points.

First, Fisher and Frey stated (from a teacher) that "...taking notes is a skill that can be taught. Students ned to be shown to take good notes that they can use later" and (from Jim Burke 2002) that "taking notes is an essential skill, one that has many sub skills embedded within it.  Taking good notes not only trains students to pay attention but also what to pay attention to."  This is something that I was NEVER taught to do.  I did not learn to take notes until I got to college, and that was what I taught myself.  No one ever gave me skills to use when taking notes or making notes.  I am a person that has to write EVERYTHING down to remember it so learning from this chapter ways to take and make notes was beneficial to me.

The next point that stood out to me was on page 123 where the authors talk about how teachers need to make lectures "note-takable" for lack of a better word. Many times teachers introduce the topic and start lecturing. Even in college, they do not tell you what it is related to or how it will help you, just that it needs to be known.  I have always wondered how students are supposed to know or remember things when they make no connections.  I also wonder if teachers even realize that this make affect students comprehension of what they are teaching, not knowing what the importance of the lesson is. Maybe it is because we are in college that they expect us to know the information?

A strategy in English Notetaking that I absolutely loved was the dictoglos.  Upon reading the beginning of the strategy, I immediately thought, "this is not going to work."  But as I contented to read, it made more sense.  Captivate students in something that they may be interested in, teach them how to listen and take notes to that topic and that helps to transfer across other areas of content.  The only question that I pose is what happens when students do not see the relevance in what is essentially trying to be taught in this strategy? I know every strategy is not for everyone, but I think this is a strategy that would need to be summed up in the end for students to grasp the concept and to be taken to other areas of content to better their note taking/ note making.

Chapter 3 (Vocabulary)

What ideas do you think are most important from the chapter? Why?
First off, I remembered countless ideas as I read from Intro to Literacy II last semester.  A few things stood out to me as I read this chapter, though.  The first is that vocabulary gap for many students is so large that it is difficult to identify where to begin. This can be a grand issue and is something that I can identify with myself.  It seems as though even when you begin to read, you have to stop and research so many words, phrases, etc. that it simply confuses you and make you think twice about whether or not to go through and define things not understood and then reading or makes you want to just not read at all. I think this is important to know because it makes a teacher first off preview what is given to students to be read knowing their levels of reading and being able to stay in their zone of proximal development without frustrating them. Frustration leads to shying away from reading.

The next idea that stood out to me was that struggling readers do not need to always do remedial work. This leads to a lack of motivation for students if they feel as though they are doing a lesser version of the lesson. Differentiated instruction was suggested and is extremely important. It is not easy to differentiate instruction but it's definitely important so that all students are included and effectively getting information without feeling set aside from their peers.

The book also stated that mastery of vocabulary is key to success in any field. It is important for anyone to know the lingo in their field. We were speaking about this in one of my special education classes and how parents get overwhelmed and afraid to speak about their children's disabilities when they are hit with the many terms and acronyms used in special education. If adults feel this way, imagine how students feel in content areas when presented with new terminology that is bigger and different that what they use everyday. It can be shocking and hard to deal with; even scary.

Food for thought:

1. What types of activities could I use to differentiate instruction without singling my students out or making them feel as though they are not as smart as their peers?