Read With Me Cultivating a Literary Community 

As a young reader, the assignment to “take notes” can be rather overwhelming.  (In fact, that assignment can be overwhelming to even a mature reader!  I have very vivid memories of sitting with a college textbook - by the pool - highlighting practically everything in the book, thinking to myself, “It’s in there. It must be important!”) In short, study skills do not come naturally to most people.

This week, as students have begun to dive into their research for their reports, we have employed a 4-step note-taking strategy called “Read – Reflect – Write – Review”. 

1.  Read – Students should read the a paragraph or small section of the text about their topic.

2. Reflect – Readers stop reading and think about what they’ve just read.  In fact, it is helpful sometimes to actually look away from (or cover up) the text to force the reader to process their reading.  (If they look away and can’t think of anything, they should reread.)

3.  Write – Based on this thinking, students should take the time now to jot notes about what they’ve read.  These thoughts can be facts/details from the text or ideas/questions/thoughts from their inner voice.  (Note: a good note-taker will have roughly an even balanced amount of thoughts and facts.)

4.  Review – At this time, a good note-taker double-checks their notes against the text.  It is important to make sure key terms are spelled correctly, and dates, names, facts are accurate. 

After our initial trial with this strategy, we quickly realized our questions were easily lost in the list of facts and details.  This was a problem for us, as we’ve just learned that our questions are so key to our understanding.  Consequently, we called upon an old, familiar friend for help: two-column notes.  

By organizing our notes into two columns, we can quickly and easily see our questions for future reference.  It’s simple to do, too.  The left column is headed “Facts/Details“, while the right column is reserved for “Thoughts/Questions“.  We even found that it worked best to keep facts and questions about the same topic grouped side-by-side.  Here’s two examples:

 As you’re at home this week, readers, working hard on your research, remember to use the good thinking and note-taking strategies we’ve been practicing in class.  Don’t forget to go back and review your notes and questions periodically, remembering to keep your questions in mind as you read. 

Happy researching!

Your readers and I have talked a lot this year about listening to our inner voices as we read.  We’ve referred to these wise words once spoken by LaKeisha, a 9th grade reader from San Fransisco, many times.

“There should be a little voice in your head like the storyteller is saying it.  And if there’s not, then you’re just lookin’ at the words.”

This week, we’ve been focusing on what to do when that inner voice asks questions.  We know we shouldn’t ignore it…but what should we do?

1.  Good readers listen to those questions.

2.  Good readers RECORD those questions.  We’ve practiced using sticky notes or writing them in our reader’s notebook.

3.  Good readers keep those questions in mind as they continue to read, using those questions as a purpose for reading.

4.  Good readers understand that you don’t always find all the answers in the text.  Don’t be discouraged by this.  Remember your strategies to find answers and try something new.

Now, please take a moment to view the embedded voicethread to learn a little more about questioning as you read.  I hope you find some useful information!