WE ARE REALLY ORIGINAL, but NOTE-TAKING is really important

First, going back to games, what about “Troley Data Bank”?. It is for grammar, vocabulary but using points and establishing a competition, it may be used for fun and revision at the same time. And you can buy it to avoid long hours preparing funny activities.

How great are some of the ideas presented today!!! Of course I’ll check all of them, for example http://www.xtranormal.com/ for characters and comics. Our Bachillerato de Artes will love it. Dioramas, on the other hand, will be better for 1st and 2nd graders. And about the MOVIEMAKER, ask Elena Masso to revise the use in case I cannot; but I think it is similar to a PPT + music + transitions from slide to slide.

About NOTE TAKING, after doing group work for a while, I think we all have a problem as students are not ready to do it in a proper way, even if we tell them how to do it. Perhaps adding points if they do it OK will encourage the younger ones, but I’m not so sure about Bachillerato students. They will continue writing terrible notes impossibl to understand and revise. I'm a bit negative, I'm afraid, but many years of experience have taught me that it is a bit late to change their learning habits.

My Example was about “Falling Leaves” by Adeline Yen Mah. Note-taking is basic to understand the plot and don’t get confused with the characters. A guide or an organiser is basic: character – characteristics – relationship – other facts. Also a couple of sentences about what and where happens in each chapter. A Family Tree may be written at the end. All these for assessment and a test (T/F questions, answer in your opinion, cities and facts in the story, personal opinion is important) as a kind of traditional evaluation. This test is a percentage in each term result and it is given to parents in a photocopy with a cut-off they must send back.


NAME          HOW IS HE/SHE?      RELATIONSHIP              OTHER FACTS
Adeline          Timid, sad, ...               main character, narrator      ...
Aunt BABA

The strategy for NOTE TAKING is usually from general to specific, using short sentences and simple vocabulary. There must be a process along the sessions and we have to following the suitable procedures (OUTLINE, UNDERLINE – A DRAFT). I have check Jessica’s links in the web to complete my own list of resources in the WEB.

Ask my colleagues about the Note-taking activities in group work (fairytales).