1. American History Foundations
Structured Note-Taking: The Founding Fathers and the Constitutional Convention
American History Foundations
August 9, 2012
Fran Macko, Ph.D.

2. Framing the Session
Why are history texts often difficult for students to comprehend?
What skills and strategies do students need to become expert readers of history?
What can history teachers do to help struggling readers in their classrooms?

3. What factors affect the readability of history texts?
Lack of prior knowledge
Unfamiliar text structure or schema
Difficulty identifying important material from less important material
Academic vocabulary and abstract concepts (“isms”)
Level of analysis and synthesis
Role of visuals, such as maps, graphs and charts, as sources of information

4. What are the keys to reading history?
Effective readers of history have a variety of comprehension strategies that they bring to reading a text. These strategies can be grouped in three categories:
Before reading or activation of background or prior knowledge
During reading or active engagement with the content
Continuous or metacognition
Effective readers of history are in charge of the process, monitoring how they read and adjusting to ensure success.

5. Our Focus Today: Note-taking
Effective readers discern which concepts to focus on and which information to retain.
They interact with the text and internalize information.
Note-taking provides a structure for recording and reorganizing information and ideas.
The structure supports retention and recall by making information accessible and providing cues to trigger memory.

6. Note-taking supports students in:
determining which information is important.
making connections between main ideas and details even when the author has not made the connections explicit.
extending and transferring knowledge after reading which results in deeper construction of meaning.

7. What are some strategies for note-taking?
Cornell Method
Parallel Note-taking
Structured Note-taking
Mapping/ Webbing
R.E.A.P.

8. Featured Strategy Structured Note-taking
Structured note-taking is a strategy that uses graphic organizers that correspond to the organizational pattern of a specific piece of text.

9. This strategy:
provides a visual framework that mirrors the structure of the text.
reinforces the features of the specific organizational pattern.
supports students in organizing their notes around the relationship among ideas in contrast to a simple listing of ideas.

10. Organizational Patterns and Comprehension
Effective readers recognize and use organizational patterns to comprehend text.
The writer’s purpose influences the organizational pattern of the text.
A text may reflect more than one organizational pattern.
Inability to recognize a text’s structure impairs comprehension.

11. What are the organizational patterns of text?
There are seven organizational patterns of text.
1 - Chronological sequence organizes information in the time sequence that the events occurred.
2- Compare and Contrast organizes information about two or more topics in terms of their similarities and differences.

12. 3 - Concept/ Definition organizes information by beginning with a generalized idea or abstraction and then delineating its characteristics or attributes.
4 - Description organizes information around the characteristics of a specific person, place or event and does not reflect a particular order.
5 -Episode organizes a large body of information around specific times, places, people or sequence of events.

13. 6 - Generalization/ Principle organizes information into general statements with supporting examples.
7 - Process/ Cause and Effect organizes information into a series of steps leading to a specific product, or into a causal sequence that leads to a specific outcome.
All seven organizational patterns can be found in history texts.

14. What are the supports for recognizing a text structure?
In addition to the descriptions of each text structure, students can be guided by:
Cue or signal words
Questions suggested by the structure

15. What are the steps in structured note-taking ?
Define and discuss the concept of how all text is organized using one of seven structures or patterns.
Introduce one text structure using simple, short examples.
Make certain that the examples clearly exemplify the structure and point out cue words and phrases.

16. Present a graphic organizer for the structure and guide students:
by explaining that the organizer is a pictorial representation of the structure of the text, and
by modeling how to record main ideas and details from the passage on the graphic organizer.
Next, assign a text passage and a blank graphic organizer and have students record their notes.

17. Have students share their graphic organizers with a partner and explain their reasons for
including certain information and,
for organizing the information on the graphic organizer.
Repeat the process with each of the other organizational structures and corresponding graphic organizers.

18. When students are proficient at recognizing all seven organizational structures, provide practice passages for note-taking.
During independent practice, ask students to
identify the organizational structure of the text, and
take notes using the appropriate graphic organizer.

19. Modeling the Strategy

20. Modeling the Strategy: Chronological Organization
Read “Alexander Hamilton”.
Use the “chain of events” graphic organizers for chronological organization to take notes based on your reading.
Discuss your notes with a partner.
Share out with the group.

21. Sample Graphic Organizer: Chronology

22. Independent Practice Read “The Constitutional Convention”.
Select the organizational pattern that is predominant in the text.
Create a graphic organizer for note-taking that reflects the pattern/
Take notes using the graphic organizer you’ve created.
Discuss your notes with a partner.
Share out with the group.

23. Adapting Structured Note-Taking to Your Classroom
How might you use Structured Note-Taking in your social studies classroom?
What adaptations to the strategy would you make?

24. Adaptations include:
Introduce and model one organizational structure at a time before introducing the next.
Vary the length and sophistication of the text.
Vary the graphic organizer based on level and sophistication of the students.
Have students create their own graphic organizers.

25. Final Thoughts
Effective readers recognize and use organizational patterns to comprehend text.
Students who understand text structures and can graphically depict the relationship among ideas improve both comprehension and recall.
Structured note-taking:
provides a visual framework that mirrors the structure of the text.
reinforces the features of the specific organizational pattern.
supports students in organizing their notes around the relationship among ideas in contrast to a simple listing of ideas.