Note-Taking Skills in Elementary School

Note-taking skills are vital for students as they progress through school. However, note-taking is a skill that needs to be taught to students in order to make it an effective way of recording information. Elementary students will need to begin practicing taking notes early on so as to develop those skills. A great way to initially teach elementary students to record information is through the use of graphic organizers. A simple Google search of graphic organizers printouts for elementary students provides hundreds of examples that can be printed and handed out to students. One way my students could use these would be to print off a wide variety of options and allow students to choose their own. I could then have them read a book and take notes on the book using the guides. Afterwards, it would make for a great discussion to ask students why they chose the organizer they did and what challenges they experienced. I would ideally continue to do this for a while and allow students to choose a different organizer every time. I would try to provide a variety of organizers ranging from options with headings and directional words (e.g. "Main Idea" "Supporting Details" etc.) to options that have only pictorial cues (e.g. bubbles, boxes, lines, etc.) so they could determine what helps them.

Implementation of graphic organizers would be relatively easy, as they would be familiar with the paper-pencil technologies. However, writing according the directions on the paper or the lines on the paper could confuse students. It could also be an issue with very young students who are struggling with fine motor skills. Another issue would be printing the actual organizers if school printing is limited. However, I feel that these would truly help students to better their understanding of note taking, so I would consider it worth the implementation.

The Nature of Technology framework is an important consideration when implementing any type of technology in my classroom. Graphic organizers are a helpful way for students to learn. However, they are value-laden. By providing the organizers, students may feel that the right way to take notes is in the format of the organizer. Some students may have difficulty organizing their thoughts in that manner. Another issue is that the graphic organizers do not encourage collaboration. Students may learn that note-taking is singular and not interactive. However, if students do not understand something, it is always a good idea to discuss and collaborate notes (obviously not plagiarism). The organizers are also limited in that they are not a blank slate for students to create whatever makes sense to them. I hope to combat that a bit in providing a variety of organizers, but that is certainly a consideration. These have certainly stemmed from students attempting to take notes on their own and teachers explaining concepts. I can imagine graphic organizers starting as more of an outline format but changing into many different formats as students needed new organization formats. I would imagine that this technology has furthered the idea that note-taking is vital in schooling. This could take the place of auditory processing, which our society is moving away from in general anyway. I would certainly want to address these issues with my students as I implemented the technology but overall, I think it would be very helpful.

Toontastic Storytelling

As elementary reading teachers, we are always on the lookout for fun and engaging educational games. Upon searching through Allan Carrington's Padagogy Wheel, we discovered Toontastic. Toontastic is a fun way for kids to build their own stories and learn about the story arc. They can choose their own characters and move them around the screen, creating a story as they record themselves. This would be a great way to teach storytelling and engage students' imaginations. Through building their own stories, students may be better able to understand the structure of stories and to better comprehend other stories.

It would be important to help students learn the story arc as they use this app. A fun way to integrate the app into a lesson would be to ask students what their ideas are on making a good story as an introduction to the lesson. Letting the students work on their own for a while to explore the app and to practice storytelling would help to engage their minds and collaborate with other students. After reviewing the students' initial stories, the teacher would be able to find out what students know and what they are confused about regarding both content and technological issues. As always, when using technology in the classroom, it is important to make sure students are on task so walking around the room while they are creating their stories would be a good idea. Luckily, the app seems very engaging so it shouldn't be a problem!

- Jackie, Amanda, & Liz