Reader Response & Discussion

Session 5

REFERENCE

Burke, Making notes, making meaning, VM 9:4

SUMMARY

Though Burke teaches both academically advanced and struggling freshmen, he turns his attention in this article to those who struggle. Burke’s struggling students are transitioning from ESL classes or are managing learning disabilities while being enrolled in a full academic program. He realizes that these students need some extra support to help them become active readers of expository text in order to improve their understanding and academic achievement. To help them toward this end he introduces them to various note-taking tools that are described in more detail in his book “Tools for Thought: How to Help Students Read, Write, and Think” (2002, Heinemann) Burke suggests that good note taking trains students to be attentive readers and trains them what to pay attention to. Good note taking also helps readers to evaluate the importance of information and the relationship between the different parts of the text.

Note taking tools which Burke teaches include:

· A one sheet explanation about what good notes are and what they contain. They also receive an outline for taking summary notes. These are passed out during the first week of class so that students who may have no past experience taking notes during reading can a little boost at the start of school when they begin getting their reading assignments. Further discussion follows through the semester.

· A continuum for evaluating what is important in a text. Burke discovered that many students do not know what “important means”. The continuum helps them to think about the degree of importance of various details in text.

· Question Notes built around the common questions that history text answers. The students are taught a method of combining these question notes with the Outline Notes that the history teacher required. Burke notes outline notes are useful if “you can clearly identify the categories into which information should be organized, but which is a frustrating and useless technique if you cannot do this”.

· Summary Notes. Being able to summarize is an excellent skill for processing meaning in written material and is a frequently required performance standard. Students are taught to be aware of what information is important for summarizing and key words that indicate summary in the text.

CONNECTION

When I taught middle school students I noticed that some students took to note-taking naturally, while others really struggled. I wanted to help them with this skill but was at a bit of a loss. It is a skill I was never directly taught. I can recall my first “lesson” in note-taking when I was in 5^th grade. The teacher read a short passage from the history textbook and we were supposed to write down what was important. All I remember is being commended for doing it well. So I guess it is just a skill that I’ve always had.

Burke’s comment that not all students know what is important is certainly worth remembering. It is nice to have a tool for helping those students who don’t have a clue.

DISCUSSION

I appreciate Burke’s clear communication style and the thought he has put into breaking the task down into its parts. I had not thought of note-taking as being a reading sub-skill, but I can see that developing good note-taking skills could significantly help students who struggle with reading expository text. It would give them one more strategy for approaching information.

EXTENSION

I think it is possible to start teaching even young elementary students the importance of various pieces of information in expository text. “The Important Book” by Margaret Wise Brown provides a great format for exploring important facts. Each pages says, “The important thing about _________ is _________”. You can then turn the class to writing their own important book using the same frame.

I’ve also done encyclopedia reading with 1^st and 2^nd graders, believe it or not. Articles in “The World Book” encyclopedia are organized with the first three or four paragraphs having the most central information about something and are written at about a 4^th grade reading level. I was doing an endangered animals unit with a group of six 1^st graders because the kids really liked animals. The only problem was that I had few resources. So each day the students picked an animal they wished to draw and read about. The students were to listen for what was important … what they wanted to remember about the animal while I read a little bit at a time to them and we discussed what I read. Whenever they agreed something was important, I asked them to tell me in a sentence which we wrote down. Each day they read back over what they had read previously, wrote/copied new sentences, and drew a new picture….I guess they were learning about taking notes!

Date: Tue Sep 28, 2004 9:03 pm
Author: Gallo, Annabelle <[email protected]>
Subject: ALLEN: But they still can't (or won't) read!


READ 5325 Journal Article 1 Session 5 Language Arts Vol. 80:4 But they still can’t (or won’t) read! Helping children overcome roadblocks to reading by Janet Allen SUMMARY: Janet Allen and a team of teachers conducted an informal study in which they surveyed 1,200 students, grades four to eight, on the reasons there were kids who can’t or won’t read. They asked the students their opinions on teaching strategies: what works and what doesn’t. They wanted to know what the kids were interested in and what they thought was fun learning-wise. The kids answered very honestly. One of the biggest complaints and opinions was that they did not like to be interrupted from a story to answer questions. When a teacher was reading a book to the class (which was very highly rated as a learning strategy for good reading) and stopped in the middle of her reading to discuss questions, students were annoyed and felt like it took away from the story. They preferred the questions to be discussed afterwards. Students said shared readings or “read-alouds” were great ways to model ideal reading skills and the aspect of learning together in a group was appealing. They also insisted that the book selection was crucial. Interesting, exciting and appealing are words that should describe the books teachers pick out for the class. Suggestion lists from teachers that contained these “good books” were also said to stimulate independent reading. The word lists or learning of new words that accompany theses books were also brought up. The kids did not like to be interrupted to learn a new word. They liked word walls to study and then hear the word in the story and discuss it at the end. The author reminds us that all children come from diverse backgrounds and have a variety of background knowledge. Thus, the shared reading and shared learning is a great way for others to learn new things from the whole group. The author clearly demonstrates her understanding of IRA Standard 3, Individual Differences, which touches on the individual differences of learners, their diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds, and fine-tuning teaching to each student’s individual strengths and weaknesses. Her discussions on word walls, word lists and suggestions for learning new vocabulary through reading demonstrates her understanding of IRA Standard 6.4, which says a teacher is to “…guide students to refine their spelling knowledge through reading and writing.” CONNECTION: I loved when my teachers would pick a “class book” and read a chapter each day. I remember that being one of my most favorite times of the day. It was usually after lunch and she would turn half the lights out. They were always such good books. One teacher would pick two or three books and have a class vote. We would talk about the book, and sometimes write also. I think this can be done in any grade level. Obviously book selection is a key element to this strategy! Reading a book that the whole class is really into and interested in harbors such great opportunities for teaching moments and activities. Writing, discussion, projects, group work- all of these can easily be applied to a “class book”, especially if the class is really excited about the book. DISCUSSION: I like the idea of the teachers taking a survey from the kids to get to the root of the problem. This, of course, depends on their age; but I would think that starting in second or third grade you could easily get ideas or opinions from a class about what works and what doesn’t. Has anyone tried this? Do you feel like you would get valuable responses from your class? I also think that every class has a “personality” and that it can change from year to year. Taking a little survey at the middle of the year might help with that particular class’s learning style. Any opinions on this?

Current Thread Detail:
ALLEN: But they still can't (or w...	Gallo, Annabelle	Tue Sep 28, 2004 9:03 pm
Re: ALLEN: But they still can'...	Barney, Katherine	Tue Sep 28, 2004 10:23 pm
Re: ALLEN: But they still can'...	Benjamin, Monica	Thu Sep 30, 2004 8:26 pm
Re: ALLEN: But they still can'...	Gentry, Pamela	Wed Sep 29, 2004 6:58 am
Re: ALLEN: But they still can&#0...	Brown, Teena	Wed Sep 29, 2004 1:53 pm
Re: ALLEN: But they still can...	Gallo, Annabelle	Sat Oct 2, 2004 1:58 pm
Re: ALLEN: But they still ...	Brown, Teena	Sat Oct 2, 2004 8:24 pm
Re: ALLEN: But they still ...	Gentry, Pamela	Sat Oct 2, 2004 8:37 pm
Re: ALLEN: But they still can&#0...	Gallo, Annabelle	Sat Oct 2, 2004 1:48 pm
Re: ALLEN: But they still can'...	Arocha, Michelle	Thu Sep 30, 2004 11:44 pm

Date: Wed Sep 29, 2004 6:58 am
Author: Gentry, Pamela <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: ALLEN: But they still can't (or won't) read!


Annabelle- It is interesting that the students surveyed did NOT like having the teacher stop and ask questions during the reading....yet we are being told elsewhere (in the textbook, I think - chapter 6?) that a good strategy for comprehension development is to stop and reflect with questions and comments during reading. So what is best practice? Go ahead and interupt the reading even though the kids don't like it (probably because asking questions interferes with the flow of the story) or wait until the end and work your way through the story with questions after reading it through one time?

Date: Wed Sep 29, 2004 1:53 pm
Author: Brown, Teena <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: ALLEN: But they still can't (or won't) read!


In reading to my children at home each night I find that they have questions and comments of their own they like to interject. I think being open to what the children have to say may be a pivoting factor. Maybe children don't like the reading interrupted with certain questions. If they are the initiators of questions and comments maybe that is better for them. I suggest that whatever the case, maybe have students keep notes of questions that come up and the place in the book it relates to. Offer an after-reading-discussion so that students can come to expect a little opportunity to think and talk about what is read.

Date: Sat Oct 2, 2004 8:37 pm
Author: Gentry, Pamela <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: ALLEN: But they still can't (or won't) read!


You've got some good points, here. Remember, the focus of this article was high school students needing to develop better textbook and information text reading skills. This kind of text really MUST be reflected on as you read --- it is a different kind of reading than story/narrative reading. I think that teaching students how to question while reading this kind of text (by doing a quick "look over" and then breaking down the text into chunks of thought to consider) could be