Ch. 7
Note Taking and Note Making
Before reading this chapter, I never knew there was a differience between note taking and note making. Note taking is defined as the students' written notes from a lecture/class discusstion. Note making is record notes from printed materials(pg 123-124). I like the idea from the chapter about how it said teacher should look at students notes from time to time. I wish that growing up, I had learned a more organized way to take notes. When I was in elementary school, I just wrote down exactly what the teacher had written on the board or the overhead. It something was unclear and there was a random thought I just wrote it down too. I would later look at my notes and have no recollection of anything I wrote down and what these random words were written across my paper. I wish I had known a more organized way of taking notes. As I got older, I leaned though trial and error how to create more orgaized, easier to understand notes. Now I know that having subnotes or color coding notes can be very helpful. If a teacher says something important, underline it or circle it. Write more than just random words, write down whole conversations. I have also found that writing notes in my own words can be very helpful. I wish growing up a teacher had given my tips or ways to take notes successfully. I also think it's very importanat to allow your students enough time to properly takes notes. I know that sometimes I am rushing to write things down before the teachers moves on and I miss half of the information that is said. If we are going to check our students' notes, then we should allow students to have enough time to properly take them. I also know this will allow students' handwriting to be neater instead of a sloppy mess with random thoughts written all across their paper. I am very glad I read this chapter, because I had no idea there was a difference betwen the two. I think its a great idea to teach students how to properly take notes, instead of having the students use trial and error with messy notes. If we are going to check notes, how often should we check them? Check for completion, or should we check for accuracy?

Ch. 3 Vocabulary
After reading this chapter, it was more of a review than learning something for the first time. I really enjoyed reading it though because it gave me some new ideas that I know i can incorporate in your classroom. I really agreed with many of the things it had to say throughout the chapter. Vocabulary is such a vital part of any students young life. I think many people forget about this and there children lack the vocabulary that is needed to be successful in writing and speaking. My mother was an english teacher, so she always talked to us using rich vocabulary or as I have heard it called before, using "juicy words." I am very thankful that she did this because growing up I realized that I had a very large rich vocabulary that came very natural to me. I really liked the part in the book that talked about how many teachers do not give their students material that is on their reading level. If they are in fourth grade and read at  a sixth grade level, then the work they are receving is not challenging. The opposite case is true as well because if a student is reading below grade level then their work is too challenging for them cause the student to become frustrated. I think this is a very common theme in many classrooms today causing a lot of stress for teachers.

I really liked how the book talked about word walls and relating vocabulary to what sudents already know. I think its a great idea for teachers to have a word wall of all the words they have learned throughout the year. In my fourth grade classroom we had to use one of our newly learned words in a sentence, and that was our ticket out the door. I think this is a great way for students to incorporate their new vocabulary into things they already know. I like how it said to use context clues to help discover the meaning of new words. This is very crucial to learning a new word, this would be a great way to help students learn new words. I know some students learn new vocabulary in a very poor manner. Some teachers just assign students vocabulary words to look up, and then tell them thye will have a test on Friday. This only allows students to learn vocabulary for a very short time and not really learn these new words. I like how the book gave great examples for teachers to help students learn new words.

I think this chapter has been very helpful and informative, I know these word walls and context clues will not work for every student. I would be curious to find out what other strategies have been successful inside classrooms. I think the brainpop we did the other day in class would be a great way to help students learn new vocabulary. I would love to explore the website more and see what all the webiste provides to help students learn new words. I can't wait to use this website in my classroom!!