Effective Note-Taking skills & Writing Centers:

Effective Note-taking skills play a vital role in a student’s academic life by keeping them on task during class. It also functions as a revision for future references. Often students face difficulties in how much information they have to record for future references. Some students like to note down everything because they don’t want to miss any information, while others don’t write anything because they don’t want any gaps in their understanding during the lecture. They want to pay full attention to their teachers. However both situations lead to problematic consequences. Understanding and recording a lecture are equally essential for future reference and preparation for the tests.

I had also faced troubles while taking notes; I used to write each and everything in my notebooks. Sometimes, unable to maintain the pace and speed of the lecture, I used to write so dirty that later, I cannot even read my own handwriting. Moreover, during tests, first I had to sort out the important and nonessential information; which used to be a hassle for me. Later I learned the skill of paperwork management.

I really like the concept how Benjamin provides the idea of organization with Big T. For young students, it would be easier to sort out the data, based on the given information which they can review later. Students can make bullet points to record information instead of writing the whole sentences.  

Polygon with three sides	Not a polygon with three sides
Triangles	Circle, Rectangle Square.

 

Polygon with four sides	Not a polygon with four sides
Rectangle Square Parallelogram	Circle Triangle Pentagon Hexagon

 I also liked the idea of taking marginal notes as Benjamin explains in ‘taking notes from reading section’ which is well demonstrated by Elisia during the strategy workshop. When I was observing the fifth graders in their social studies class, I saw some students were having hard time in answering the questions on ‘Westward Expansion’ topic due to the lengthy reading. I think this is a best strategy to take notes from reading. In future, I see myself implementing this strategy in my class. Using the index cards is also a great tool to take notes for research.

Writing centers also play key role in advancement of students’ writing skills. Paraprofessionals and assistant teachers for instance; ELL teachers perform an important function to improve students’ writing development.

Notebooks and Journals:

Keeping journals is a productive mean to enhance the creativity and critical thinking among students. Journal writing helps the students to improve their comprehension, writing and learning. In this chapter, Benjamin introduces the idea of Interdisciplinary language Journals. In this kind of journal, learner connects one class to another by using the terminology of one subject to another. I believe this is a high level thinking process. Making the relations between different content areas using terminologies is a difficult task for the learners.

I personally like the idea of writing journals prompts. It allows to express personal thoughts. However, the idea of interdisciplinary language journal is new to me. I had never used it before in my academic period.  I thought I should give it a try. So I tried to make a connection between different classes which I am currently taking . I found it very challenging to use one subject 's terminology for the other, as it is hard to do English in Mathematics or vice versa. I think with a little practice, it becomes easier in the future to make the links.

Although for first and second grade students, it is hard to implement this type of writing due to limited vocabulary. However, I can visualize the 4^th and 5^th graders making the connection between different subject areas. I believe keeping a separate note book to record interdisciplinary journal prompts helps the students to tie the threads from different classes. It helps to develop critical thinking.

Hopefully, I will use the idea of across-the-board journal in my future classroom. I am planning for my students to have a seperate notebook to keep the interdisciplinary language journals. In this journal prompt , they will share their thoughts about different topics which they learned in other subjects and try to make a link between them.

Research papers and WebQuest

In chapter seven, Amy Benjamin provides the effective techniques and strategies to deal with a formal academic genre, the research papers. Definitely students need clear expectations and instructions to handle this task. I like the way Benjamin differentiates the researches in different content areas by elaborating on science vs. humanities research.  In order to muddle through the task, students should be provided with unambiguous guidelines and models as different department need different outcomes. Samples and templates always help the students to follow certain format.

 In the classrooms, whether it is elementary level or college level, setting clear expectations with samples always help students to produce better and expected results. Well defined queries lead to accurate responses. I have often seen frustration among students when they are not provided with enough formats and models to deal with the task. In one of my class at Brooklyn College, We had to do a research paper. I know the anxiety and frustration we been through because there wasn’t enough information available regarding the task. Every time, there were line of students waiting for the professor in his office. I learnt a lot from that. In future, I will make sure that I provide enough samples and models for my students to complete a certain task.

 As I have mentioned earlier, since we are dealing with 21^st century students, technology plays a vital role in their learning process . In this chapter, I really like the idea of using WebQuest in the classroom. I think, it enhances the students’ motivation because they use real and timely resources as compared to old text books. It not only prepares them to extract the specific information but also empowers them to equip with technology.

Moreover, in the WebQuest the teacher has links to the specific resources; therefore it allows the teachers to control the students' research and directs them to achieve a particular writing task. Some people argue that technology can be a hurdle in students’ learning due to their illiteracy in this field; but I think this is the best time to introduce technology among them. Although it is a difficult task, not only for students but also for the teachers, but lots of practice enables them to achieve their ultimate goals. Research papers have always a frightening and overwhelming concept among students; but to introduce it in an entertaining way will help them grasp the concept quickly and efficiently.

Organization: Frames, Clusters, and Stems

Organization process is an important aspect for achievement of all the efforts for attaining goals. The systematic organize structure is a key to success in any aspect of life. In “Organizers: frames, clusters and Stems, ” Benjamin presents organizational patterns and clusters to categorize information which develop organized writing.  She provides patterns for classification, comparisons, characteristics, chronology, claims and cases, causes, consequences, conditions and criticisms. I find the examples of  all the C-patterns to be very fascinating. I thought that all of the model words provided in each section should be made accessible to students by putting them on a classroom's wall; as greater interaction with these models will help them to use it in their writing more often.


However, I felt that some of the techniques are more suitable for the older grades students. Young learners grasp knowledge mostly through visual assistances. Graphic organizers are a great device to assist students in becoming more structured and organized in writing. For instance, in the comparison patterns, I thought that charts, tables and Venn-diagrams, as Mariel demonstrated in her strategy workshop, would be more beneficial. Similarly for Classification, Spider map and Cerebral charts exhibited by Vanessa are great models to teach the young students.

 

Central to learning a subject is learning its terminology.

Developing vocabulary among students is not only an essential component in their learning process but also a challenging task for the teachers. According to Amy Benjamin, in order for the students to know a word, they need to understand that how it is used in its context, its tone, its nuances and its flexibility. Benjamin skillfully presented the teaching model for writing definition using left brain (methodical) and right brain (metaphorical) thinking. With the aim to describe the left brain (Methodical) thinking, she indicated 6 clear steps to extract clear definitions.

1.      Noun

2.      Verb

3.      Realm

4.      In/Of

5.      Which

6.      Action statements

I find it quite useful to teach students as it is very systematic and organized and provide with a layout for the students. It provides effective and comprehensive steps towards structuring clear definitions.

The right brain thinking is metaphorical and creative. It allows the learner to visualize it and thus helps to remember it. Both thinking together establish real and lasting learning that outcomes from a whole brain thinking.

The most challenging task for the students is to use the new words in the sentences that enable to meet certain criteria. Often student find it difficult to visualize the word into its practical usage. I even observe in the classroom that some students know the spelling and definition of the words but when they are told to use it in sentences, they cannot think of its application. Definitely they need more understanding of the words.

      I admire the list of verbs Benjamin provided in all content areas. It is really helpful while teaching the students to write definition and explain terminologies in the content area. I thought selecting two-hat words will be a fun activity for the students as it provides the opportunity to consider the words using in its context as a technical term as well as in ordinary speech.This book indeed is a very good source for providing the samples for content area writing.

 

Writing short statements:

 

In “Short statements in fifty words or less, ” Amy Benjamin presents models for writing statements with high information density. This chapter provides details for how to make writer efficient, concise and direct. Benjamin beautifully focuses on the elements to extract profound and concise brief identification and the contrast statements. Providing the students with a list of key action words and connectors not only helps them to establish the basics but also frees them to discuss the issue on a more elevated level. Short statements are very challenging for the students. Often it is very difficult for the writers to identify the unnecessary words that can be removed. Encouraging the students to summarize and write short statements leads to precision and conciseness in future writing as well as it develops their focus on succinct writing.

Teaching the students with examples is really a good start. In our daily lives, if we are not given the format and key words, we come up with lot of unnecessary information.  Short statements are a way to condense information to provide deeper and richer knowledge.

This chapter provides lot of information that can be implemented in the classroom. This chapter not only provides the key action words but also provides the words that are not suitable for writing. I find it really interesting. Since in a real time classroom environment, we deal with students' different learning styles and abilities and for some students it is easier to write when there is a list that shouldn't be used in their writing.

 

Strategies and Models to facilitate structured writing:

In chapter three of Writing in the content areas, Amy Benjamin offers various representations, proposals and forms to help the students to be specific and provide details. Often in the papers, students produce unsupported generalities. Benjamin beautifully focuses on the root cause and lists the generality words that can be replaced into specific components to produce writing that is rich in details. I really like the idea of listing the general words, as sometimes in our own paper, we feel that we don’t have anything to talk about. By showing the relationship between generalities and specifics, it helps the student to build a range from specifics to general and vice versa.

Listing prepositional phrases in the classroom is a wonderful approach. It facilitates the students to support and provide details in their writing. By Making a connection with the time and place help the students to make an airtight writing piece. Facts and figures also refine the writing piece not only economically but demographically.

This chapter definitely is information packed in terms of extracting the most out of the students in their writing assignments. Providing them with exact words not only helps them to filter the unnecessary components in their writing, but also improve it by replacing them with specific details. I adore the idea of spelling list as well. It is true that some of the technical terms are not common in daily life conversations. To have them on the board help the student to memorize the spelling and once they get used to of it, it can be replaced with the new words .

This technique is also useful in lower grades. As in the first and second grade class, I love the idea of word wall in the classroom. It assists to not only introduce the student with new words but also helps them to get familiarize with it while doing their writing workshops. Every week the students get tested on these spelling words. It constructs the vocabulary as well as their practice in the writing.