Wow, first I want to start off with saying that this chapter was extremely interesting to me. I got a late start at this assignment due to family obligations, but much to my surprise I enjoyed reading the chapter and found myself really engaging in the information. Often times I found myself relating the instruction of note taking to my mentor teacher at Oak Grove. She does a great job of teaching her students in her math class to follow along with her notes and to take them out and use them as well. I believe it is important that teachers begin teaching students how to take notes early on. My mentor teacher teaches at the 5th grade level, even though she helps them a lot throughout their note taking process, she is still teaching them responsibility. I found it interesting how she helps them, but when they begin to ask her questions on a specific subject she instructs them to refer back to their composition notebooks (where their notes are located) to find information they covered previously. By instructing students to take notes, it encourages them to learn while the teacher is lecturing or while they are reading. More times than none it takes a student a while to find their own personal style of note-taking, but by being encouraged to take notes and exploring the different ways from the teacher will only speed up the process.
Questions:
1. You can only do so much as an instructor to help your students with their note taking or making skills, as a future special educator what are other ways a student can retain and focus on information if note taking is not their thing?
2. Another question is how early is it recommended that teachers begin teaching students specific note taking skills should be implemented?
It is very important that teachers teach how to take notes. I did not realize this until I read the chapter. I too started thinking about my mentor teacher at oak grove! I think when teaching students how to take note should come at a early age. Students these days are learning so many complex things at such a young age. I think that if students have an idea of what note taking and note making is then when they get to the more complex materials they will be able to have an idea of how to gather there thoughts and take notes on what they teacher has to say. Special education is a little more difficult. I think it depends on the student. If they are not getting all the different note taking strategies then you could try having the notes recorded for them so you can play it back orally. You could assign a certain student who is good at taking notes to be that students note taker. You could also give the student a copy of your notes. Another option is when there is something really important that you know you do not want the student to miss you could say "this is important" or "write this down" maybe these options will help. I defiantly think note taking should be taught to all students tho.
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