Note Taking, Content Area Centers, and Mini Lectures

[Day 4 Notes from Kathleen Tolan's Session]

Day 4:
-Minilecture
-Center Time
-Critical Reading
-Notes using Structure of Text
-Read aloud to quick essays

*Inquiry Centers: We don't want to give kids everything. We want them to say, "We need..."

Real learning happens when we take what we have learned and then apply it.
When you really understand something, you can apply it.

Note Taking:
Until we teach them about taking notes, they shouldn't be taking notes.

*It's not just about taking the notes, it's about interacting with the notes.

Notes set up for Compare/Contrast

Types of notes: 

• Timeline (Forces kids to determine importance) [Could fit read aloud books, could include big ideas that you are growing]
• Sketching (What would you sketch to hold on to information)
• Sketch needs to move
• What will I put into the sketch that will hold information? -Powerful!
• Sketching across a section
• Sketching across what lead up to Boston Massacre
• Boxes and bullets
• HARD TOOL/OVERUSED: Venn Diagram (Would be better as a T chart)
• I wonder why... I think this is because...
• Specifics about what you notice/Bigger ideas or understandings

Text Structures can help you take more effective notes

What note taking strategy best represents our thinking about a topic?
Ask self, “What structure is my text written in?”	Ask self, “What note taking strategy will I use to best represent my thinking?”
Compare and Contrast	Venn Diagram, T-Chart
Cause and Effect	T-Chart, Cause/Effect T Chart
Time Order (Chronological)	Timeline
Clear Main Idea and Supporting details	Boxes and bullets
Pros/Cons	Pros/Cons T-Chart

Fun class game: Name that Text Structure

-Have 5 or 6 in a baggy

-As soon as they know what it is, they share

-Then they explain how they know

What are the clues that help you know?

Text structures are important. It's not enough to know whether a book is expository or narrative. Text structures can vary from page to page to page. Kids need to keep adjusting their reading.

Text Structure	Key Words
Compare and Contrast	on one hand/on the other hand
Cause and Effect	change, cause, effect, when
Time Order (Chronological)	before, after, dates
Clear Main Idea and Supporting details	one idea, another idea
Pros/Cons	on one hand/on the other hand

Content Area Centers:

Habit of mind: We are looking closely at something here, and really staying with it.

Decide, what are some big take-aways?

Then move on to next piece, but carry the angle in which you noticed something from the first piece. What's similar? What's different?

Ex: Cats

Look at 1 image. Break it into quadrants. What are you noticing about this cat?

Name out: When we go to a new image, what might we take from this image? (Markings, tail, ears)

Compare and contrast with partner:

Compare:

• ___ and ___ are alike because...
• ___ and ___ have some similarities...
• Both ___ and ___ experiences/problem/functions/features are the same...
• Both ___ and ___ have ___ which helps/protects...
• What can these similarities teach me?

Contrast:

• ___ and ___ are different because...
• ___ and ___ are different because one... But the other...
• Unlike ___ that have ___          ___ don't but ___
• This is different than...
• This is smaller than..
• This is bigger than...
• What can these differences teach me?

[Work with Center]

Come up with one or two bigger (tentative) ideas that your group is starting to grow.

Post ideas on front board and share out. Groups should listen and see if they could steal any of the big ideas.

*As kids are coming  up with big ideas, have them post it publicly in the room. Other kids can come up and look at ideas to grow their own thinking.

Mini Lecture

Feels like a combination of a mini lesson and a read aloud.

Has a focused lecture point. (Sounds a lot like a box for an essay) [Also called listening prompt]