Summarizing+&+Note+Taking

Read and Reflect
How do you currently apply this strategy with or without technology?

Summarizing is a strategy under the district reading goal, although it has application in all subject areas. It does require students to apply higher order thinking as they sort through information and decide on pertitent facts. This is critical in today's world where there is easy access to a plethera of information. In addition to Marzano's work, we are using the text //Summarization in Any Subject// by Wormeli//.// One of the points of the text is that summarization should be used throughout the lesson instead of the more common practice of using it exclusively at the end. This helps students process information along the way and provides feedback to the teacher about students' understanding or misunderstanding. I have started using a summarization strategy in meetings/workshops to model the practice.

The article also discusses the use of summary frames prompted by teacher questions. Marzano has many examples in his book that helps to get teachers started. I also like using the features in Word to model the "rules based" strategy for summarizing.

The point that struck me about notetaking was the importance of using both linguistic and nonlinguistic forms. I remember hating to take notes in school as teachers made us use the outline / Roman numeral form. It wasn't until college and later that I began to explore other ways of notetaking that worked for me. Teachers do need to teach and model notetaking, but also show students a variety of formats and encourage them to personalize their notes.

Apply and Reflect
Provide evidence of the tool that you learned.

I have to admit, I wasn't looking forward to VoiceThread as I had this perception that it would be difficult to use. However, I experienced the complete opposite. It was easy to create, and the site gave tutorial support and examples of how to use Voice Thread in a variety of contexts. I enjoyed viewing and hearing the comments on VoiceThreadsads and especially liked how classrooms used the tool for a collaborative project. I'm still playing with a recorded message as I didn't have a microphone for the home pc and the volume on my laptop was low.

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