Note Taking Strategy

Objective: Students will learn to take notes using significant words from a document.

Modeling:

Materials:

A non-fiction document giving factual information in several paragraphs

A highlighter

Steps:

Show one paragraph.

Explain that we will highlight or underline the five most important words;

these words will not be simple words like is, a, the, etc., generally the

words are nouns but may be adjectives or main verbs.

Note: Five words is not definite; it could be six or seven; however, it needs to be few words to impress the student that it is few words.

Guided Instruction:

Steps:

Students may have copies of paragraphs 2 and 3 or they may be displayed

for students to see.

Ask: What words would you highlight?  Take several suggestions.

Explain that there are no exact right five words, but the words are words the students consider most important.  A clue is if you only had those five words could you give much of the information in the paragraph?

Independent Work:

Give students a different non-fiction document giving factual information in

several paragraphs.

A highlighter or colored pencil to underline the five most important words

Share students’ ideas of five important words and explain:

• People don’t usually choose the same five words.
• The words must fit the guideline—If you only had those five words could you give much of the information in the paragraph.

Panda Facts

Pi-shu is an ancient Chinese name for panda, meaning “brave.”  Giant pandas are found only in the dense bamboo forests of the mountainous regions in China.  Panda babies are usually born as twins are about four inches long at birth.  Often only the stronger of the two cubs survives.

The five highlighted words are suggestions.  The teacher or class may choose other words.

A giant panda eats around thirty pounds of bamboo a day to keep alive, though some have been recorded eating as much as eight-four pounds in a day—nearly half their bodyweight.  Pandas eat different types of bamboo at different times of the year, mainly arrow bamboo in winter and umbrella bamboo in summer.

Giant pandas are among the rarest animals in the world.  There are only about one thousand of them left in the wild.  Their numbers have decreased mainly because of the growth in human population and the destruction of the panda’s natural habitat.

Butler, J. (2001). Pi-shu: the little panda. Atlanta: Peachtree Publishers.