Ch. 7 Taking Notes and Making Notes

The two ideas I found most important in this chapter are 1.) students are more likely to take notes when they don't feel challenged in a way that they will be graded on the notes they take and 2.) students must first realize that notes can be useful to them before they appreciate the importance of notetaking.  It is proven that when students know that someone else will grade or judge what they are doing, they are less likely to want to do whatever it is they will be graded or judged on.  This is true with notes also.  If a student knows that the teacher is going to take up their notes and give them a grade on them or fuss at them for not doing them right, they are not going to want to take notes at all.  Teachers have to let students know that they want them to take notes during lectures, but for their on good, not to be viewed by anyone else.  This is not to say that teachers shouldn't check notes.  Teachers should check notes just to make sure students are listening, not to give students a grade on them.  Secondly, students trully have to see the benefits that notes can have before they feel it is important to take notes at all.  I know as a student, I don't take notes unless I know the information will be on a test or I really need it.  This is also true for elementary students, they do not want to do something if it is not going to benefit them. 

Another thing that stood out to be in the chapter was the section on notetaking in mathematics.  In this section it talks about how the teacher tells his class to take out a sheet of paper, everyone will be taking notes.  This gives the entire class a anxious and uneasy feeling, until the teacher says "I will tell you what you need to write", and he proceeds to give them a heads up on the information he thinks they need to write down.  This is a great procudure to use when students are just beginning to learn how to take notes.  Teachers can sort of guide them on what they do and do not need to write down, and then gradually they can listen on their own for what is important enough to write down in their notes and what is not so important.  When I read this I was thinking how I wished one of my teachers in elementary school would have done this,  because I would be a much better notetaker now.  When I was in school I was not taught how to take notes at all. 

Questions:
1.)  Why isn't teaching notetaking skills emphasized more in elementary and middle school?  If it was students would be doing better in highschool classes..
2.) In the book it shows how to do an assessment on notes, why would we want to assess students on notes if they are taking them for themselves?  It seems like this would put more stress on students if they are being graded on notes.

Vocabulary

The chapter on vocabulary was about how a solid foundation in vocabulary is crucial in every subject, especially when students get to the secondary level in school.  The text breaks vocabulary words down into three categories; general, specialized and technical.  General vocabulary words are just that, words used in general in everyday life.  Specialized vocabulary is vocabulary specific to certain things, events, places, etc.  Technical vocabulary is words used in a technical sense, words used in subjects such as math and science.  Two ideas that I found extremely important from the chapter is, first, students who struggle in comprehension due to lack of vocabulary in secondary settings need different strategies to help them than what you would use when teaching vocabulary for the first time.  For example, it says in the text, a high school student who is reading on a fourth grade level due to problems in vocabulary can not be helped by using vocabulary teaching strategies you would use on the fourth grade level as remediation for that student.  Other enriching strategies are needed to help this student.  I found this very interesting because my first thought would be, if the student is reading on a fourth grade level, I would start with fourth grade strategies and instruction to help this student, but the book says that is not successful.  The second idea that I found extremely important from this chapter is that students must make personal connections with vocabulary words for them to successfully fully understand the word or concept.  A student must relate the word to personal experience for the word to make sense and also to actually remember the meaning of the word, as Dr. Boyce would say the student must "make the word their own."  This holds true for any age group, not just secondary students.  One thing that stood out to me when reading this chapter was the vocabulary journal mentioned in the section vocabulary in math.  It gives the example of geometric terms in math.  For example the the term was triangle, the student would find a picture of a triangle in a real life scene such as a road sign.  They would cut out a picture of the triangle and glue it to the page and then they would give a summary of the term in their own words, then diagrams, formulas and theorems concerned with the term.  I think this was a great idea because while creating the pages it helps remember the words and their meaning, but then they will also have it to flip back to quickly if they need to refresh their memory.  The vocabulary journal is an awesome idea for any subject area. 

Questions:
1. If a high school student is reading on a fourth grade level, why is it not a good idea to used fourth grade vocabulary strategies to help them?  The book did not explain completely
2. Why are vocabulary tests still given in classroom if they are proven not effective?