Sample

=Notetaking Skills=

Before beginning a lesson on notetaking with 4th grade students, I would place the notetaking skill in the context of the Big 6 process.

1. Task Definition--I would explain to them that the teacher has assigned us the task of understanding the phases of the moon. There are specific bits of information we need to know. I would have a graphic organizer already created with this information identified.
 * what are the phases (i.e. new moon, full moon, etc.) and what do they look like
 * what is the order of the cycle
 * what are the causes for the phases

2. Information Seeking Strategies--I would explain that there are many information resources that we could use such as encyclopedia, video clips from Discovery Streaming, online databases, websites, but today we are going to use print enclyclopedias.

3. Location and Access--I would ask them where the print encyclopedias are usually kept in the library. However, I would already have enough copies (may possibly need to photocopy the "Moon" article) so that all groups of students have access to the resource.

4. Use of Information--I would explain that now that we know what our task is, have identified the information we need, have identified and located the source we will use, we can now start finding and extracting the information we need. **I would then lead them through the note-taking lesson using the "Moon" article.**

5. Synthesis--I would explain that they will be taking the notes they gathered today back to the classroom so that they can use the information to help you better understand the science unit. (Hopefully, the teacher would agree to have the students use the information in some authentic product.)

6. Evaluation--I would have them review their notes to see if they have enough information to answer the questions we identified at the beginning of class. These are identified on the graphic organizer.