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A Treasure Hunt:Reading for Information and Notetaking
Description:
Using a treasure hunt theme, this lesson teaches primary age students how to read for specific information and extract information to complete a specific task. It introduces students to taking notes and to rewrite information in one’s own words. It teaches students how to extract only the important words and to leave out any unnecessary words which, subsequently, teaches students not to copy word for word (plagiarizing). Rewriting information using their own words will promote the use of their higher order thinking skills. The idea for this lesson came from the “Trash ‘n Treasure” method of notetaking created by Barbara Jansen and can be viewed under “lessons” on the Big 6 website (www.big6.com). Jansen’s notetaking method is designed for students in grade 3 and up. My goal in designing this lesson was to introduce the same concepts to students in grades 1 and 2. Ideally, this lesson should be taught in collaboration with the classroom teacher in the context of a research project or report.
Goals & Objectives:

As a group, students will be able to:

 

 1. read for specific information within a paragraph

 

2. take notes by orally stating the key words in the paragraph

 

3. rewrite information in their own words

Materials & Sources:
1. paragraph written on a large sheet of paper 2. scissors
Procedures:

1. Explain to students that they will be “going” on a treasure hunt and learning how to find information within a paragraph to answer a question. (ie. for a research project or animal report, etc.) Ask the students to pretend they are pirates who are looking for gold. * The procedure below is shown in the PowerPoint presentation.*

 

2. Select one question from a particular research project and write the question on the board. (ie. What types of food do bats eat?)

 

3. As a group, discuss and circle the keywords in the question. (ie. “food” and “eat”)

 

4. Display a large sheet of chart paper on which you have previously written a paragraph about a subject and which has information that will answer the question. Have the students read the paragraph aloud.

 

5. Cut the sentences of the paragraph into strips. Make two columns on the board labeling one “GOLD” and the other “ROCKS”. Have a student read aloud the first sentence. Ask the students if the sentence answers the question. If it does, have a student place the sentence strip on the board in the column labeled “GOLD”. If the sentence does not answer the question, have a student place the sentence strip on the board in the column labeled “ROCKS”. Repeat this process with all of the sentences. Explain that the sentences under the “ROCKS” heading are important but are not helpful to answer our question.

 

6. Reread the sentences in the “GOLD” column, one at a time. and discuss which words in the sentence are the “key” words. Highlight or circle the key words.

 

7. Ask a student(s) to write the key words on the board. Explain that they are “taking notes” which they will use to answer the question.

 

8. Ask the students to count the number of keywords and compare this number of words to the number of words in the original paragraph (fewer). Explain that it is less work to write only a few words rather more words.

 

9. As a group, develop an answer to the question using the “key” words AND the students’ OWN words. write the answer to the question on the board.

 

10. Close the lesson by reviewing what they have learned: finding key words to answer questions; taking notes; and answering the question using the key words and their own words.

Assessment:
1. The teachers and students will interact throughout the lesson.

2. The teachers will observe the students placing sentence strips in the correct columns on the board.

3. The teachers will observe the students identifying key words.

4. The teachers will observe the students developing an answer to the question using the key words and their own words.
Sources:
The idea for this lesson came from the “Trash ‘n Treasure” method of note taking created by Barbara Jansen and can be viewed under “lessons” on the Big 6 Website (www.big6.com). Jansen's note-taking method is designed for students in grade 3 and up. My goal in designing this lesson was to introduce the same concepts to students in grade 1 and 2.
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Presented By: Cynthia Tidd
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