Metacognition in Literacy
Menu
Note TAking
What is Note Taking?
Note taking is a skill in which students learn how to keep track of their thinking while they are reading.
Metacognition is when a person is consciously thinking about the way that they think and what they are thinking about. Metacognition is difficult to assess, but it is evident when students show their thoughts through their notes while they are reading when they have guidance on topics and concepts to think about.
Annotating is a type of note taking in which students have symbols which represent their thinking. It is used as a method for them to keep track of their thoughts and ideas without interrupting their reading too much. It allows them to be able to easily go back and write more detailed notes once they have completed reading the section, chapter, or piece of writing.
Good readers think about:
- Key words
- Important ideas
- New Words
- Questions about the text
- Questions to the author (or the character)
- Relating the text to themselves
Good note taking can help prevent plagiarism in students as they grow up!
"Students have always copied text into their research papers verbatim. Some have plagiarized entire term papers. It seems, however, that the issues of copying and plagiarism are getting more notice now than ever. With the advent of the Internet, students seem to be more tempted than ever to "borrow" sentences, paragraphs, and entire pages." -Education World
Lessons: Make note taking fun!
- The Long and the Short of it:
it is an important skill to have, and when summarizing might come in handy.
Mention that summarizing will come in handy when writing a book review,
research writing, and other reading and writing skills across different subjects.
However, also mention how being able to summarize will help students in life
when conversing with people or telling stories to friends. Introduce a short book to
students and have them summarize the cover of the book to begin. Then read the
book a few pages at a time and have them write down a summary at every point
at which you stop. After students write their summary, ask a few students to share
their thoughts that they've written down. This is something that is good practice
and should be repeated many times with different types of texts over a few class
times.
2. The Incredible Shrinking Notes:
Students will be working on listening to a text and being able to take notes,
then boiling down their notes to only the most important information.
They will begin by listening to the grade-appropriate text and filling a 3 x 5 inch
note card with important facts from the reading selected. The passage will be read
again to the students, but this time they will jot down notes on a smaller index
card, such as a 3 x 3 inch card. It is the students' job to analyze the notes on the
large card and figure out which are some of the less important information that
can be removed from the list. Finally, students will have only a sticky note to write
down their important details. This forces students to have to really judge which
information is truly valuable and which is expendable. In the end, students should
have notes which show the most important facts or details found in that reading.
This teaches them to do this process of boiling down the information on their own
while they are reading to identify what is truly important.
3. Graphic Organizer Made Easy
Students will learn how to use a graphic organizer to help them gather research
notes for writing. The graphic organizer used in this lesson can be seen to the right.
This can be printed for students to use or may be converted to an editable
document for students to use on the computer. Start the lesson by introducing a
new research topic for students. You can begin by creating a KWL chart of what
they know, what to know, and another space for what they have learned at the end
of the unit. Make sure that every student has a question or concept that they want
to know for the unit, and some teacher examples of possible questions to be
asking might be needed. Then students may use the library or approved internet
resources to find information to answer three questions on their individual charts.
They will have to identify three "Research Sources" and write the answers that they
find in those sources in their appropriate columns in the Note-Taking Graphic
Organizer. Students should be encouraged to take small bullet notes (which is why
the boxes are so small) and reminded that notes while reading are brief and
focused on details. This allows for better content in notes and less copying of
sentences from sources. When they finish their graphic organizers, they write a
report that includes a summary paragraph about each question that they
researched. Don't forget to fill in that "L" column for what they learned once
everyone has finished!
References:
Finley, Todd. "Common Core in Action: 10 Visual Literacy Strategies." RSS. N.p., 19 Feb. 2014. Web. 16 Nov. 2016.
"Graphic Organizer: Research Note-Taking Made Easy." Education World: Graphic Organizer: Research Note Taking Made Easy. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2016.
Finley, Todd. "Common Core in Action: 10 Visual Literacy Strategies." RSS. N.p., 19 Feb. 2014. Web. 16 Nov. 2016.
"Graphic Organizer: Research Note-Taking Made Easy." Education World: Graphic Organizer: Research Note Taking Made Easy. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2016.