Summarizing+and+note+taking

= = = Summarizing and note taking =


In order for students to succeed at higher levels of education they must be able to summarize and take notes quickly and effectively. The ability to identify key points, relate them to memorable words and phrases and document them within a matter of seconds is a required skill for the successful college student. With most jobs now requiring some form of post secondary schooling, our K-12 students must be taught the skills of summarizing and note taking.

Students must be taught to recognize how the information they are receiving is organized so they can identify key parts and ignore nonessential pieces. Once necessary information has been identified it must be analyzed and summarized and finally documented in a form the student will remember.

 1) Microsoft Word
Most word processing programs contain options to track changes. This allows the user to remove unnecessary language, paraphrase important parts and analyze large chunks of information. By giving a user this ability the student can physically compare several different versions of the same thought. Students can then choose which version is the most memorable, the most like the original or even the one with the most unnecessary words. Over the course of several practice exercises students should get the hang of pulling important information out of written materials.
 * Rationale**

Microsoft Word is a common word processing program that the district already owns. Students have utilized this product to create their own documents since they have been in kindergarten. Most have not, however, used the tracking feature found in the review tab so they would need to be taught.
 * Requirements**



The school also owns the necessary hardware which is linked to school servers where a teacher’s file is housed. The teacher’s file will house the documents the students are to summarize and take notes from. The instructor can differentiate instruction by creating files in different reading levels.

Because the district already owns the necessary hardware and software, there is no additional cost. If the district needed to purchase either, a personal computer could be purchased from www.dell.com for approximately $500-$700. Microsoft Office Standard 2007 bundle includes Word 2007, Excel 2007, PowerPoint 2007, and Outlook 2007 with a suggested retail price of $399.99 is available from www.microsoft.com. Volume license pricing is available and may be obtained by contacting Microsoft directly at 800-426-9400.
 * Cost**

 === 2)   Microsoft Outlook  ===  Students in sixth grade are socialites who communicate using current technology. They use email and cell phones both with the ability to text and instant message. Instant messaging is a short, quick way for students to communicate with their friends. Users abbreviate words, summarize information and leave out extraneous language, all of which are note taking and summarizing skills which leads IM to be the perfect technology to practice this strategy with. With IM an instructor can verbally introduce a subject to students. Each student can be assigned a partner on the opposite side of the computer lab and everyone can be assigned a generic sign-on to Microsoft Outlook. The partners can IM each other during the teachers lesson with what they would consider as note worthy information. The pairs can compare and contrast what they gleamed relevant from the lesson.
 * Rationale**

Each student would need to work on his or her own work station consisting of a hard drive, monitor and keyboard hooked into the schools server. Each work station would need to have Microsoft Outlook 2003 or 2007 installed on the hard drive or accessed through the server.
 * Requirements**

Because the district already owns the necessary hardware and software, there is no additional cost. If the district needed to purchase either, a personal computer could be purchased from www.dell.com for approximately $500-$700. Microsoft Office Standard 2007 bundle includes Word 2007, Excel 2007, PowerPoint 2007, and Outlook 2007 with a suggested retail price of $399.99 can be purchased from www.microsoft.com. Volume license pricing is available and may be obtained by contacting Microsoft directly at 800-426-9400.
 * Cost**

 === 3)   SMART Board  ===

SMART Board is an interactive product that incorporates both hardware and software. The system allows the user to manipulate what they see on the screen by moving items with the mouse (on a pc), special pointers or even the user’s fingers (on the actual SMART Board itself). Several of the features the SMART Board software contains include the ability to highlight, underline, erase and more which suit it perfectly to visualize summarizing and note taking. When students can physically view differences between original and summarized versions they better learn what information is extraneous, what is necessary and what information they can rephrase to better comprehend and remember.
 * Rationale**

The SMART Board system can be utilized in two ways. For lessons when the teacher demonstrates how to highlight, underline, strike through etc. and what information to do those actions to, the following is needed: A PC workstation:
 * Requirements**
 * Hard drive
 * Keyboard
 * Monitor

Hooked to a
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Projector
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">SMART Board

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Software required:
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Microsoft Word
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">SMART Notebook Software

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Once the demonstration is completed, summarizing and note taking exercises can be completed by individual students or partners. Technology requirements for this part of the program include: One PC workstation per student or team:
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Hard drive
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Keyboard
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Monitor

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Software required:
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Microsoft Word
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">SMART Notebook Software

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Cost** The school already owns all of th​e necessary hardware and software necessary for this option. However if any of the products were required to be purchased, personal computers could be obtained for $500-$700 from www.dell.com. Projectors are available from www.projectorpeople.com starting at $500. Microsoft Office Standard 2007 bundle includes Word 2007, Excel 2007, PowerPoint 2007, and Outlook 2007 with a suggested retail price of $399.99 from www.microsoft.com. Volume license pricing is available and may be obtained by contacting Microsoft directly at 800-426-9400. SMART Board pricing of $1400 includes the board and software. Volume pricing for student workstations as well as all SMART technology can be obtained from www.visionpro1.com.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 80%;">SMART Board photo from: @http://community.scholastic.com/attachments/scholastic/highschoolblog/26/2/sledge%20smartboard.JPG retrieved November 23, 2009.

Educational Challenges
A major stumbling block of summarizing and note taking is differentiating those students who catch on more quickly than others. Identifying key concepts and extraneous information is a high level thinking skill which takes some students much longer to master than others. By providing practice files written at different reading levels teachers are able to differentiate to specific student abilities. Technology provides a vast amount of flexibility when it comes to choosing files for practice exercises. Teachers can differentiate down to specific student likes and dislikes to engage interests in the activity.
 * Differentiated Instruction**

Once students have been working on the project for a few minutes, the teacher can circulate, sit down with students and review choices the students made. Microsoft Word and SMART Board allow the student to undo changes if after discussion with the teacher the student changes his mind about his previous choices.

Summarizing and note taking is boring. Some students would prefer a root canal over sitting through a class or reading a chapter taking notes. How do you get these students excited about such a necessary evil? Let them do the job on a favorite piece of technology or software. Let them instant message (or text) one another. Since supplying cell phones to a class of sixth graders is probably not a good idea, setting up a class of generic student accounts in the districts email system is a better option. Letting the students IM each other to summarize the teachers lesson not only helps them take notes, it helps them see what others think is important enough to take as notes. In true note taking fashion they are allowed to write any way they need so they remember what is said; chances are texting linguistics will quickly be utilized. Partners can compare what they feel are the most important items mentioned during the lesson and at the end the teacher can review to make sure key points were not over looked.
 * Student Motivation**