The next step of my unit is to take notes on what the students have researched. As I mentioned earlier this step may be the most difficult for foreign-born to take. The teacher must emphasize the following four points when taking notes:
1. Write notes in you
own words
.
2. Write only the
main ideas
and
important details
.
3. Notes need not be written as complete sentences.
4. Write down each of your sources of information.
To help the foreign-born with this step, it would be wise to provide many practice activities in finding the main idea and important details and also in paraphrasing.
Some sample practice activities would be:
Provide the students with a list of sentences. Have them underline two words that tell about the main idea.
Or, have the students read a short selection and choose the best title from those provided.
Or, you can obtain some telegram blanks from Western Union or ditto up your own imitations ones. Use them for practice condensing information in the simplest form. Telegrams may be written or typed in appropriate style. You can also use old telegrams as samples. Western Union will provide you with them.
Be creative and ingenious in your own way. Provide as many activities as you possibly can for this objective. After you have completed this then go back to Ted and his Brazil report. Give the students an excerpt from the encyclopedia about Brazil. Ditto it off so that each child could have one. Have them take notes on this piece of information. When the class has completed taking notes on this same excerpt, have the class share their notes so that they can get a good idea of where they went wrong. Usually when taking notes, students tend to be too wordy. They must do at least one example together to use as few words as possible and yet be accurate.
In this step, students must also be made aware of direct quotations. A direct quotation is when you copy phrases or sentences directly from a book. It always begins and ends with quotation marks. Some practice activities should be given to reinforce this concept. Then give the students an article Ted would find on Brazil with notes taken on it. Have them underline any direct quotation they see in the notes and punctuate it correctly.
Now that all of this is taught and reviewed have the students take notes on the information they found on their topic.