Another way to take notes
First, very quickly let me just say WOW it has been forever since I have written a blog post. I always mean to write posts and I take photos but then I get busy. College and teaching are taking up 99% of my time, but you aren't reading this to hear about my busy life but rather another way to take notes with your students, so lets get into that discussion.
If you are like me you have your students keep a science notebook where much of their classwork is kept. One of the things we normally have in our science notebook are notes for each section. When I began my career we did the whole "fill in the blank" notes while the teacher goes over a power point and the students follow along. Several teachers still use this method today and I think there are some uses for this method that I may discuss in another post but for now I want to talk about another way to take notes.
One of the ways I like to take notes with my students is through drawings. Many students are visual learners so by drawing their notes they are cementing the information into their minds because we are talking about the information together as they are drawing and writing in the information. Now some students aren't a fan of drawing so when you first begin to teach them how to take drawing notes you have to remind them that this is not art class, and the drawings are to help give them a visual that they understand. Be sure that you as the teacher also have this in mind because some students may want to add things to their drawing or draw something slightly different from what you have. As long as they are drawing something that relates to the topic do not stop them, do not force them to draw exactly what you have because then their memory from that drawing will be one of anger or frustration and not a memory of the topic.
I have two methods for drawing notes. My first method is a draw-along. In the draw-along method the teacher puts a blank sheet of paper under the ELMO and the students follow along with the teacher drawing and writing what the teacher does. This is by no means a one way street though, the teacher must interact with the students by using questioning. By using questioning the teacher is getting the students to think about the topic and they are able to see what the student's prior knowledge is. For the example to the right I wrote the first transformation radiant ----> chemical and then I asked students what radiant energy is and how we might draw it and then I asked the same questions for chemical energy. I found that there were numerous misconceptions about chemical energy so we wrote the formula and talked about glucose. Then in the next section I only wrote chemical and asked to see what we might draw to expand on what we had just been talking about. I draw bunnies well enough that they are recognizable so I drew a bunny but several students drew other animals and then we went from there. On the third example I asked them to draw a different organism because I didn't want them to associate the concept with only one organism. We continued from there and completed out notes. Then once we have completed our noted I have some questions for the students to answer and they glue these into their science notebooks for later use.
This is another set of notes we did together where I led the students and they drew along. I will say that this can be tiring for you the teacher because you are drawing every class period but you don't do these every day so it's not that difficult.
The second way I do drawing notes is normally with processes that have steps so there is a set way things occur and the students can follow those steps and create drawings about each set. For this type of notes I have the students read in their textbooks or from an article about the process and then I have them create visual notes about that process. One step that helps the students is to fold the paper with them ahead of time so they know how many steps they should have and how many drawings they need. For this activity I also have a pre-drawn version that I have created that either a) I share with my students who need a little extra assistance or b) we go over as a class to see how their drawings compare to mine and we can discuss what they may need to add or how they viewed it slightly differently than I did but they still conveyed the correct message. Even with these visual notes I do also always have the students add some writing especially as we talk and I find various misconceptions I will have students add in small written notes or additions to their drawing that help enhance their understanding.
We also make sure to add in vocabulary words. For example, for succession we make sure to have words like lichen and climax community. This method can take the students two days to complete because the teacher has to allow them to read over the material and determine what the steps are in the process and then they have to decide what to draw and in what order. During the process the teacher should be walking around the room guiding students, giving small suggestions when needed and making sure the students are understanding the concept. Once the students have had the opportunity to draw and wrestle with the concept themselves then the teacher should have a group discussion about the concept and the drawing. For this portion I normally put my notes example under the ELMO and then I give the students time to discuss what they had on their notes, and I give them time to make any adjustments. This is also the time when we discuss unit vocabulary and I ensure they have that in their drawing notes and they have an understanding of the vocabulary.
This is a lot of information to take in and a very long blog post after not writing anything for months so I hope this is helpful and not overwhelming. Be sure to contact me if you have any questions about this concept.
Teach on!!
I have two methods for drawing notes. My first method is a draw-along. In the draw-along method the teacher puts a blank sheet of paper under the ELMO and the students follow along with the teacher drawing and writing what the teacher does. This is by no means a one way street though, the teacher must interact with the students by using questioning. By using questioning the teacher is getting the students to think about the topic and they are able to see what the student's prior knowledge is. For the example to the right I wrote the first transformation radiant ----> chemical and then I asked students what radiant energy is and how we might draw it and then I asked the same questions for chemical energy. I found that there were numerous misconceptions about chemical energy so we wrote the formula and talked about glucose. Then in the next section I only wrote chemical and asked to see what we might draw to expand on what we had just been talking about. I draw bunnies well enough that they are recognizable so I drew a bunny but several students drew other animals and then we went from there. On the third example I asked them to draw a different organism because I didn't want them to associate the concept with only one organism. We continued from there and completed out notes. Then once we have completed our noted I have some questions for the students to answer and they glue these into their science notebooks for later use.
We also make sure to add in vocabulary words. For example, for succession we make sure to have words like lichen and climax community. This method can take the students two days to complete because the teacher has to allow them to read over the material and determine what the steps are in the process and then they have to decide what to draw and in what order. During the process the teacher should be walking around the room guiding students, giving small suggestions when needed and making sure the students are understanding the concept. Once the students have had the opportunity to draw and wrestle with the concept themselves then the teacher should have a group discussion about the concept and the drawing. For this portion I normally put my notes example under the ELMO and then I give the students time to discuss what they had on their notes, and I give them time to make any adjustments. This is also the time when we discuss unit vocabulary and I ensure they have that in their drawing notes and they have an understanding of the vocabulary.This is a lot of information to take in and a very long blog post after not writing anything for months so I hope this is helpful and not overwhelming. Be sure to contact me if you have any questions about this concept.
Teach on!!
