You have been presented with a wide variety of study strategies for use with your students. Which of these study strategies do you already use or plan to use in your classroom? What is the appeal of these strategies over other methods? Are you at all influenced in your choices by your own experiences as a student?
Are there other, alternative methods not mentioned in our exploratory that you use (or will use) to enhance your students' ability to work smart?
Making Notes, Taking Notes
Why do we make our students take notes? Walter Pauk answered this question quite simply in 1978: Because we forget. The numbers are frightening too. Almost 50 percent of what is covered in a class lecture is forgotten within minutes without the use of notes. Notes are an incredibly important part of the learning process because they re-enforce a lecture or lesson by having the student paraphrase, summarize, react critically, question, or even respond personally to the information at hand.
A major part of using note taking skills is to know the specifics of note taking. Notes can come in several different formats and on different media. Computers, notebook paper, and index cards are all explored in Vacca and Vacca along with some great techniques.
Summary notes offer a clear concise form of information that includes the author’s main idea in the presentation and the supporting material.
Thesis notes answer the question “What is the main point the author has tried to get across to the reader?” This style of taking notes identifies the theme through it is directly stated, telegram like character.
Critical notes identify the purpose of the presentation, but they also have the student defend or expand the position taken by the presenter.
Question notes come to the main goal of the presentation by way of a question and work well as a flip card on an index card. The students can put the question on one side the response on the other.
Just like anything, note making needs to be taught to students. A great practice is to supply them with text and have them build a specific style of note and then discuss them as a class. This allows the students to practice, discuss, reflect, and re-do the notes.
Another suggestion is to give the students a style of note and then discus what the notes were meant to do. In this manner the students could formulate definitions for each of the different styles of note making and then through modeling and practice they could move on to applying their skills.
Notes are best enforced if incorporated in to the everyday schedule of the course. Have students keep permanent notes that they will utilize at the end of the period or as an opener or warm-up in the next session.
A major part of using note taking skills is to know the specifics of note taking. Notes can come in several different formats and on different media. Computers, notebook paper, and index cards are all explored in Vacca and Vacca along with some great techniques.
Summary notes offer a clear concise form of information that includes the author’s main idea in the presentation and the supporting material.
Thesis notes answer the question “What is the main point the author has tried to get across to the reader?” This style of taking notes identifies the theme through it is directly stated, telegram like character.
Critical notes identify the purpose of the presentation, but they also have the student defend or expand the position taken by the presenter.
Question notes come to the main goal of the presentation by way of a question and work well as a flip card on an index card. The students can put the question on one side the response on the other.
Just like anything, note making needs to be taught to students. A great practice is to supply them with text and have them build a specific style of note and then discuss them as a class. This allows the students to practice, discuss, reflect, and re-do the notes.
Another suggestion is to give the students a style of note and then discus what the notes were meant to do. In this manner the students could formulate definitions for each of the different styles of note making and then through modeling and practice they could move on to applying their skills.
Notes are best enforced if incorporated in to the everyday schedule of the course. Have students keep permanent notes that they will utilize at the end of the period or as an opener or warm-up in the next session.
Writing Summaries
There is definitely an art to writing a good summary. The reader must be capable of recognizing important information and mapping out consecutive ideas while maintaining a writing that is theirs while avoiding simply ‘retelling’ the original text. To achieve this Vacca and Vacca offer a few rules to follow:
1. Include no unnecessary details.
2. Collapse lists.
3. Use topic sentences.
4. Integrate information.
5. Polish the summary.
Vacca and Vacca offer a guided reading procedure (GRP), which is an adaptation for GRASP or Guided Reading and Summarizing Procedure, as a method for starting a good summary. The technique is simple but effective for a classroom setting. You simply have the students read a paragraph, place the book face down and build a list of all of the important information. You can then take the time to eliminate all of the unnecessary information and then give them a chance to re-read the paragraph before moving on.
Polishing a summary seems to be the most important part of writing a good summary. This could be due to the writing/ re-writing nature of such a thing. This leads to a deeper understanding and retention of the material. To help students through this process:
1. Offer a well prepared summary to compare and discuss.
2. Present three summaries containing:
a. Content and transition
b. Transition only
c. No content and poorly written
3. Use Peer evaluations.
4. In lieu of peer evaluation and with permission from student, have the entire class read and discuss the summaries.
1. Include no unnecessary details.
2. Collapse lists.
3. Use topic sentences.
4. Integrate information.
5. Polish the summary.
Vacca and Vacca offer a guided reading procedure (GRP), which is an adaptation for GRASP or Guided Reading and Summarizing Procedure, as a method for starting a good summary. The technique is simple but effective for a classroom setting. You simply have the students read a paragraph, place the book face down and build a list of all of the important information. You can then take the time to eliminate all of the unnecessary information and then give them a chance to re-read the paragraph before moving on.
Polishing a summary seems to be the most important part of writing a good summary. This could be due to the writing/ re-writing nature of such a thing. This leads to a deeper understanding and retention of the material. To help students through this process:
1. Offer a well prepared summary to compare and discuss.
2. Present three summaries containing:
a. Content and transition
b. Transition only
c. No content and poorly written
3. Use Peer evaluations.
4. In lieu of peer evaluation and with permission from student, have the entire class read and discuss the summaries.
Searching For and Using Text Structure: Internal Structure
Understanding the structure of a text—the organization of ideas—improves understanding and retention. As students are able to understand the relationship between ideas (how they are organised), they are better able to create meaning and separate essential information from less important details.
External Text Structure: the text’s overall design and organizational structures. See the blog below for an interactive discussion opportunity about external structure.
Internal Text Structure: the relationships among ideas in the text as well as the subordination of some ideas to others.
“Skilled readers search for structure in a text and can readily differentiate the important ideas from less important ideas in the material.” (Vacca and Vacca, pg. 296)
Five text patterns dominate informational writing. Good readers look for these connections:
· Description involves providing information about a topic, concept, person, idea, etc. It connects ideas by listing important characteristics or attributes.
For example: There are many delicious Italian dishes at the local restaurant. One of them is a creamy, meat lasagne. This pasta dish is smothered with a rich Bolognese sauce and a perfect blend of fine cheeses. It’s well-balanced combination of flavours is sure to please the hungry patron.
· Sequence involves putting facts, events, or concepts into a sequence.
For example: In order to make a perfect meat lasagne, the novice cook need only follow these basic steps. To begin, mix a rich Bolognese sauce by combining beef, tomato sauce, and fine herbs. Layer this sauce with noodles as well as a rich parmesan and cottage cheese combination. To finish your beautiful lasagne, top your meat, cheese, and noodle mixture with a hearty layer of mozzarella cheese. Put in the oven for one hour at 350 degrees.
· Comparison and Contrast involves pointing out similarities and differences among facts, people, concepts, etc.
For example: The meat lasagne is very different than the fettucini alfredo. While the fettucini includes a thick cream sauce over a simple noodle bed, the meat lasagne combines a hearty meat sauce with a rich blend of cottage, parmesan, and mozzarella cheeses. Both contain a large quantity of dairy, but the difference of tomato and cream sauces are sure to please different pallets.
· Cause and Effect involves showing how facts, events, or concepts happen because of other facts, events or concepts.
For example: The patrons quickly left the restaurant after their waiter carelessly spilled their pastas on each of their laps. Although they had been highly recommended to the local Italian eatery, they were sorely disappointed in both the food and the service. Neither patron planned on suggesting this restaurant to any of their friends nor did they ever plan on dining there again.
· Problem and Solution involves showing the development of a problem and one or more solutions to the problem.
For example: The skyrocketing price of tomatoes threw the local Italian eatery into quite a panic. They attempted to adapt to the changing prices of vegetables by adding more noodles to their pasta dishes. Instead of the thick vegetarian sauce found on their normal dishes, patrons were greeted with a noodle dish graced with little more than one or two less-than-appealing tomatoes. The results were not good for either the patrons or the restaurant.
Looking for signal words in the text will help students to identify the type of reading in front of them. See the documents section of this site for a breakdown of common signal words associated with each of the 5 text common text patterns.
Guidelines for analysing text patterns:
1. Analyse the text for the most important idea (are there signal words?)
2. Study the content for additional important ideas (how are these ideas connected?)
3. Outline the relationships between main and subordinate ideas
Text patterns are difficult for some readers to discern, but once students become aware of the importance of organization and learn how to search for relationships in text, they are in a better position to use information more effectively and to comprehend material more thoroughly.
A study guide based on text patterns helps students perceive and use the major text relationships that predominate in the reading material. As you consider developing a study guide for text patterns, you may find it useful first to read through the text selection and identify a predominant pattern and second to develop an exercise in which students can react to the structure of the relationships represented by the pattern.
Bottom Line: “When readers perceive and interact with text organization, they are in a better position to comprehend and retain information.” (Vacca and Vacca, pg. 299)
External Text Structure: the text’s overall design and organizational structures. See the blog below for an interactive discussion opportunity about external structure.
Internal Text Structure: the relationships among ideas in the text as well as the subordination of some ideas to others.
“Skilled readers search for structure in a text and can readily differentiate the important ideas from less important ideas in the material.” (Vacca and Vacca, pg. 296)
Five text patterns dominate informational writing. Good readers look for these connections:
· Description involves providing information about a topic, concept, person, idea, etc. It connects ideas by listing important characteristics or attributes.
For example: There are many delicious Italian dishes at the local restaurant. One of them is a creamy, meat lasagne. This pasta dish is smothered with a rich Bolognese sauce and a perfect blend of fine cheeses. It’s well-balanced combination of flavours is sure to please the hungry patron.
· Sequence involves putting facts, events, or concepts into a sequence.
For example: In order to make a perfect meat lasagne, the novice cook need only follow these basic steps. To begin, mix a rich Bolognese sauce by combining beef, tomato sauce, and fine herbs. Layer this sauce with noodles as well as a rich parmesan and cottage cheese combination. To finish your beautiful lasagne, top your meat, cheese, and noodle mixture with a hearty layer of mozzarella cheese. Put in the oven for one hour at 350 degrees.
· Comparison and Contrast involves pointing out similarities and differences among facts, people, concepts, etc.
For example: The meat lasagne is very different than the fettucini alfredo. While the fettucini includes a thick cream sauce over a simple noodle bed, the meat lasagne combines a hearty meat sauce with a rich blend of cottage, parmesan, and mozzarella cheeses. Both contain a large quantity of dairy, but the difference of tomato and cream sauces are sure to please different pallets.
· Cause and Effect involves showing how facts, events, or concepts happen because of other facts, events or concepts.
For example: The patrons quickly left the restaurant after their waiter carelessly spilled their pastas on each of their laps. Although they had been highly recommended to the local Italian eatery, they were sorely disappointed in both the food and the service. Neither patron planned on suggesting this restaurant to any of their friends nor did they ever plan on dining there again.
· Problem and Solution involves showing the development of a problem and one or more solutions to the problem.
For example: The skyrocketing price of tomatoes threw the local Italian eatery into quite a panic. They attempted to adapt to the changing prices of vegetables by adding more noodles to their pasta dishes. Instead of the thick vegetarian sauce found on their normal dishes, patrons were greeted with a noodle dish graced with little more than one or two less-than-appealing tomatoes. The results were not good for either the patrons or the restaurant.
Looking for signal words in the text will help students to identify the type of reading in front of them. See the documents section of this site for a breakdown of common signal words associated with each of the 5 text common text patterns.
Guidelines for analysing text patterns:
1. Analyse the text for the most important idea (are there signal words?)
2. Study the content for additional important ideas (how are these ideas connected?)
3. Outline the relationships between main and subordinate ideas
Text patterns are difficult for some readers to discern, but once students become aware of the importance of organization and learn how to search for relationships in text, they are in a better position to use information more effectively and to comprehend material more thoroughly.
A study guide based on text patterns helps students perceive and use the major text relationships that predominate in the reading material. As you consider developing a study guide for text patterns, you may find it useful first to read through the text selection and identify a predominant pattern and second to develop an exercise in which students can react to the structure of the relationships represented by the pattern.
Bottom Line: “When readers perceive and interact with text organization, they are in a better position to comprehend and retain information.” (Vacca and Vacca, pg. 299)
Study Guides
What exactly is a study guide? It has sometimes been compared to a “worksheet” – something students complete after reading, usually as homework. Guides, like worksheets, may consist of questions and activities related to the instructional material under study.
One of the differences between a study guide and a worksheet is that students respond to the questions and activities in the study guide as they read the text, not after. Because a study guide accompanies reading, it provides instructional support as students need it. A well-developed guide not only influences content acquisition but also prompts higher-order thinking.
Guides help students comprehend texts better than they would if left to their own resources. Over time, text learners should be weaned from this type of scaffolding as they develop the maturity and the learning strategies to interact with difficult texts without guide material.
Three-level Guides
The levels-of-comprehension model that was introduced in Chapter 1 lends itself well to the development of guide material to engage students in reading. Because reading is a thoughtful process, it embraces the idea of levels of comprehension. Readers construct meaning at various levels of thinking and conceptual difficulty. At the literal level, students read the lines of content material. They stay with print sufficiently to get the gist of the author’s message.
Good readers search for conceptual complexity in material. They read at the interpretive level – between the lines. They focus not only on what authors say but also on what authors mean by what they say. Herber (1978) clarifies the difference between the literal and interpretive levels in this way: “At the literal levels readers identify the important information. At the interpretive level readers perceive the relationships that exist in that information, conceptualizing the ideas formulated by those relationships.”
When you attempt to seek significance or relevance in what is said and meant, this is one signal that you are reading at the applied level. You are reading beyond the lines. Reading at the applied level is undoubtedly akin to critical reflection and discovery. It underscores the constructive nature of reading comprehension. When students construct meaning from the text at the applied level, they know how to synthesize information – and to lie that synthesis alongside what they know already – to evaluate, question the author, think critically, and draw additional insights and fresh ideas from content material.
A three-level guide provides the framework in which students can interact with difficult texts at different levels of comprehension.
Selective Reading Guides
Selective reading guides show students how to think with print. The effective use of questions combined with signaling techniques helps model how readers interact with text when reading and studying. Content area teachers can impart tremendous insight into how to acquire text information through a selective reading guide: The teacher begins by determining the overall purpose for a particular reading assignment. Second, he selects those sections of the reading which are necessary to achieve this purpose. Most important, he eliminates from the assignment any and all sections that are irrelevant to the purpose. Third, for those relevant sections that remain, the teacher determines, based on his own model reading behaviors, what a student must operationally do to achieve the purpose – step by stop, section by section. The purpose behind the selective reading guide is that teachers understand how to process information from their own subject matter areas.
One of the differences between a study guide and a worksheet is that students respond to the questions and activities in the study guide as they read the text, not after. Because a study guide accompanies reading, it provides instructional support as students need it. A well-developed guide not only influences content acquisition but also prompts higher-order thinking.
Guides help students comprehend texts better than they would if left to their own resources. Over time, text learners should be weaned from this type of scaffolding as they develop the maturity and the learning strategies to interact with difficult texts without guide material.
Three-level Guides
The levels-of-comprehension model that was introduced in Chapter 1 lends itself well to the development of guide material to engage students in reading. Because reading is a thoughtful process, it embraces the idea of levels of comprehension. Readers construct meaning at various levels of thinking and conceptual difficulty. At the literal level, students read the lines of content material. They stay with print sufficiently to get the gist of the author’s message.
Good readers search for conceptual complexity in material. They read at the interpretive level – between the lines. They focus not only on what authors say but also on what authors mean by what they say. Herber (1978) clarifies the difference between the literal and interpretive levels in this way: “At the literal levels readers identify the important information. At the interpretive level readers perceive the relationships that exist in that information, conceptualizing the ideas formulated by those relationships.”
When you attempt to seek significance or relevance in what is said and meant, this is one signal that you are reading at the applied level. You are reading beyond the lines. Reading at the applied level is undoubtedly akin to critical reflection and discovery. It underscores the constructive nature of reading comprehension. When students construct meaning from the text at the applied level, they know how to synthesize information – and to lie that synthesis alongside what they know already – to evaluate, question the author, think critically, and draw additional insights and fresh ideas from content material.
A three-level guide provides the framework in which students can interact with difficult texts at different levels of comprehension.
Selective Reading Guides
Selective reading guides show students how to think with print. The effective use of questions combined with signaling techniques helps model how readers interact with text when reading and studying. Content area teachers can impart tremendous insight into how to acquire text information through a selective reading guide: The teacher begins by determining the overall purpose for a particular reading assignment. Second, he selects those sections of the reading which are necessary to achieve this purpose. Most important, he eliminates from the assignment any and all sections that are irrelevant to the purpose. Third, for those relevant sections that remain, the teacher determines, based on his own model reading behaviors, what a student must operationally do to achieve the purpose – step by stop, section by section. The purpose behind the selective reading guide is that teachers understand how to process information from their own subject matter areas.
Graphic Organizers
“Graphic organizers are visual displays that help learners comprehend and retain textually important information.” (Vacca and Vacca, pg. 299)
Graphic organizers enable students to identify important information, supporting information, and how these ideas are related. Choosing the right graphic organizer to use with a text is imperative in understanding this relationship of ideas.
“A fundamental rule in constructing graphic organizers is that the structure of the graphic should reflect the structure of the text is represents.” (Jones, Pierce, and Hunter 1988-1989 in Vacca and Vacca, pg. 300)
Some types of graphic organizers are:
Comparison and Contrast Matrix - shows similarities and differences.
Problem and Solution Outline - depicts a problem, attempted solutions, outcomes, and end results.
Network Tree - shows the relationships between superordinate and subordinate concepts.
Series-of-Events Chain - illustrates the chain of events in a story or sequence pattern in a text.
Semantic (Cognitive) Mapping - identifies important ideas and shows how these ideas fit together.
Graphic organizers, by their very nature, are best experienced as examples. Several websites and sample documents have been included to the right so that you may explore and understand the variety of graphic organizers that exist.
Graphic organizers enable students to identify important information, supporting information, and how these ideas are related. Choosing the right graphic organizer to use with a text is imperative in understanding this relationship of ideas.
“A fundamental rule in constructing graphic organizers is that the structure of the graphic should reflect the structure of the text is represents.” (Jones, Pierce, and Hunter 1988-1989 in Vacca and Vacca, pg. 300)
Some types of graphic organizers are:
Comparison and Contrast Matrix - shows similarities and differences.
Problem and Solution Outline - depicts a problem, attempted solutions, outcomes, and end results.
Network Tree - shows the relationships between superordinate and subordinate concepts.
Series-of-Events Chain - illustrates the chain of events in a story or sequence pattern in a text.
Semantic (Cognitive) Mapping - identifies important ideas and shows how these ideas fit together.
Graphic organizers, by their very nature, are best experienced as examples. Several websites and sample documents have been included to the right so that you may explore and understand the variety of graphic organizers that exist.
Responding to Statements versus Responding to Questions
In their discussion of three-level guides as a way to expand reading comprehension, Vacca and Vacca propose that declarative statments serve to guide students towards more appropriate comprehension by requiring students to choose from alternative suggested or implied outcomes, rather than producing an outcome of their own.
Do you feel there is a difference between responding to statements at different levels of comprehension versus responding to questions? If so, what contrasts are apparent to you?
Are there situations where you would choose to use questions rather than statements to prompt student responses? Why or why not?
Do you feel there is a difference between responding to statements at different levels of comprehension versus responding to questions? If so, what contrasts are apparent to you?
Are there situations where you would choose to use questions rather than statements to prompt student responses? Why or why not?
External Structure: Ignorance Isn't Bliss
Understanding the structure of a text—the organization of ideas—improves understanding and retention. As students are able to understand the relationship between ideas (how they are organised), they are better able to create meaning and separate essential information from less important details.
Internal Text Structure: the relationships among ideas in the text as well as the subordination of some ideas to others. For more on internal text structure, see the article posted above.
External Text Structure: the text’s overall design and organizational structures.
Each chapter may also include: introductory statements, summary statements, headings, graphs, charts, illustrations, and guide questions.
These external text structures are often ignored by students but are very beneficial to understanding. How could a teacher help students focus on these integral components?
Internal Text Structure: the relationships among ideas in the text as well as the subordination of some ideas to others. For more on internal text structure, see the article posted above.
External Text Structure: the text’s overall design and organizational structures.
The common external text structure elements are:
Preface
Table of Contents
Appendices
Bibliography
Indexes
Preface
Table of Contents
Appendices
Bibliography
Indexes
Each chapter may also include: introductory statements, summary statements, headings, graphs, charts, illustrations, and guide questions.
These external text structures are often ignored by students but are very beneficial to understanding. How could a teacher help students focus on these integral components?
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Sandra Sinfield on Note Taking
Going Digital
Here is a cool video about a digital pen. Please excuse the commercial side of it. The video is focused on digital note taking, but we can think of a handful of other classroom applications. Enjoy!!
