2. Summarizing and Note Taking
These skills promote greater comprehension by asking students to analyze a subject to expose what's essential and then put it in their own words. According to research, this requires substituting, deleting, and keeping some things and having an awareness of the basic structure of the information presented. Research shows that taking more notes is better than fewer notes, though verbatim note taking is ineffective because it does not allow time to process the information. Teachers should encourage and give time for review and revision of notes; notes can be the best study guides for tests.
Applications:
Technology Integration Ideas:
These skills promote greater comprehension by asking students to analyze a subject to expose what's essential and then put it in their own words. According to research, this requires substituting, deleting, and keeping some things and having an awareness of the basic structure of the information presented. Research shows that taking more notes is better than fewer notes, though verbatim note taking is ineffective because it does not allow time to process the information. Teachers should encourage and give time for review and revision of notes; notes can be the best study guides for tests.
Applications:
- Provide a set of rules for creating a summary.
- When summarizing, ask students to question what is unclear, clarify those questions, and then predict what will happen next in the text.
- Use teacher-prepared notes.
- Stick to a consistent format for notes, although students can refine the notes as necessary.
Technology Integration Ideas:
- Blogging
- After students complete a summary exercise, have them use Auto Summarize for a comparison.
- Use a Wiki or Google Docs for collaborative summarizing and/or note taking.
- Use Voice Thread for summarizing and note taking activities.
Possible iPad Apps
Free
Free
- Evernote- This popular app allows users to save notes across multiple sources in an easy to use space. You can clip full websites, articles, or selections of important information and tag the clips to help organize ideas. The use of tags allows users to more easily synthesize information from multiple sources. The app also allows users to share notes with others (teachers or fellow students), which allows teachers to evaluate student progress, share teacher-prepared notes as examples or create opportunities for collaboration and sharing in groups.
- PaperPort Notes- A combined note taking and document annotation app for the iPad, PaperPort Notes allows users to type or write freehand notes, use voice recognition to dictate notes (great for some special needs students), annotate over imported documents from the web, your Dropbox or Box.net accounts, or documents folder. You can also import files or snapshots from the web, copied contents from the iPad clipboard and images from the camera. Teachers and students can share summary frame templates via imported documents from the web, Dropbox, Box.net, or PaperPort Anywhere accounts.