Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Getting Back into the Groove: Research Writing

After almost two months of neglecting this poor blog, I figured it was time to hop back online.  Like many teachers, I have been swamped with school work. 

Teaching children how to take notes always gives me a headache.  I am still on the hunt for the perfect lesson on how to introduce 4th graders to note taking.  I went about it a little different this year.  My goal for this lesson was getting my students to answer questions they were looking for and to write it in their own words.

I took construction paper and made it into a mini folder:

 
 
All I did was cut rectangles that were a little bigger than the index cards being used.  Then, I had the kids glue each side except the top where the cards would be inserted. 
 
Students wrote their topics on the front of the mini folder.  On the back of their research folder, they wrote where they got their information from (works cited).
 
 
 
I gave each child 3 index cards.  I had 3 questions every child had to answer about their weather topic. I placed a sticker with each question on the blank side of each index card. 



 
 
Once the students found an answer to a question, they wrote it on the back of the index card. 
 
 
It worked well, but I am sure I will tweak it again. I am not sure how sold I am on teaching fourth grade students how to take notes.  Sometimes, I feel it is too young.  Mine still struggle with writing complete sentences. Anywho, enough with the ranting.
 
I hope to get my next post up some time this weekend.  I am tweaking the final activity that I will be posting.
 
Until then,
 
Happy Blogging!