This is a powerpoint that I created for a staff development at my school, Falcon Bluffs Middle School.

1. Summarizing and Note
Taking
It doesn’t have to be boring.

2. Objectives
• You’ll develop your understandings around
different genders and different learning styles.
They require a variety of approaches
• You’ll understand that note taking isn’t limited to
rote copying
• You’ll see that note taking is integrally related to
reading for main ideas and writing to learn
• You’ll learn a variety of note taking and
summarizing techniques
• You’ll apply your learning
• I’ll show that I really can use a power point 

3. Who is this guy?
• 11 years of classroom teaching and instructional
coaching
• Law Degree from D.U.
• M.A. in Curriculum & Instruction
• Licensed and endorsed K-12 in English, Soc. Stu.,
& Reading
• Co-Director of the Denver Writing Project
• Cyclist, Dad, . . .

4. Let’s begin
• Take a fortune cookie
• Read your fortune to yourself
• Don’t share it yet
• Think: How does your fortune connect
with teaching note taking in your
classroom?
• Share and then eat your cookie.

5. We need to read to take notes
and before we read:
We must have a purpose
If we don’t have a purpose
Everything is important
And
If everything is important
Then nothing is important

6. The House
(Thanks to Cris Tovani)
• Count off in three’s
• If you’re a ‘one’ read as a burglar – what’s
important?
• If you’re a ‘two’ read as a potential buyer –
what’s important?
• If you’re a ‘three’ read as a real estate
agent – what’s important?
• So – would your notes look different each
time?

7. What about learning
styles?
• Think of these three basic learning
styles:
• Quantitative
• Verbal
• Non-Verbal
• Will they learn the same way?

8. Strategies we’ll focus on
today:
• Power Notes: quantitative and verbal
learners
• Found Poetry: verbal learners
• Visual Note Taking: non-verbal
learners

9. Also, if we have time
• Written Conversation
• Q Notes
• Somebody Wanted But So
• Marzano’s 4 Steps

10. Power Notes
a reading / writing strategy
• Main ideas are P1 ideas
• Elaborations or examples are P2
ideas
• Further elaborations or examples are
P3 ideas
• Characteristics are P4 ideas

11. For Example
• We might read an article about
Football Penalties:
• P1 – Football Penalties
• P2 – Offensive Penalties
• P3 – Holding, Face Mask, etc.
• P4 – Characteristics of holding, etc.

12. If we use a graphic organizer
P1
Fa n s
o l ei
ol a
t Pe
b l
t
P2 P2
Oveis
fn P e
fs n
ee a
i lt D i Pe
e ve s
f s ll
eea
n ti
P3 P
3 P3 P3
H
o
lig
dn I gee
l ac r
l l e
eR i
v Pn r c
a tfe
sen
sr
I ee H
o
lig
dn
P4
C ti c H
h es o
a r o lig
r s f d
a t
c n

13. Let’s try it now
• Read the science article
• Try taking Power Notes on your own
• Look for the P1 ideas, P2 ideas, etc.
• Label them that way in your notes
• Then. . .

14. • Use your notes as pre-writing to
write a summary paragraph that
shows your understanding.

15. Let’s be poets:
• Read a Social Studies article
• As you read, think about your
purpose for reading and:
• Highlight words and phrases that
speak to you because they fulfill your
purpose and also . . .

16. • They sound good
• Are interesting or grab you
• And are about the content (this is
important)
• List them or highlight them

17. • Now you’re a poet:
• Look at your list and think of it as the words of a
poem.
• How can you structure them to look, sound and
read like free verse poetry?
• You can add words if you need to.
• Only do that if it helps your poem make sense
• The point is to show your content knowledge in a
found poem.
• Have fun

18. But first, an example:
"CHICAGO”
HOG Butcher for the World,
Tool Maker,
Stacker of Wheat,
Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler;
Stormy,
husky,
brawling,
City of the Big Shoulders

19. For us visual learners
Read the article on South Africa
(if you want to stretch yourself, try the
math article)
Divide your paper in half, lengthwise
Label the top left side: key words, phrases,
ideas
Label the right side: pictures
Read the text stopping every 1/2 page

20. • On the left side, record important
words, phrases, ideas
• On the right side, draw your picture
of what you read
• When you’re finished, use your
drawings to prompt your summary
writing.

21. That’s it for now
• How are you feeling?
• What will you commit to try?
• Who will you share it with

22. Oh Yeah, I forgot
• Lee Waldman
• lwaldman@jeffco.k12.co.us
• 2-6257
• I have handouts for you that include
other ideas

23. Resources
• Beers, Kylene. When Kids Can’t Read. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2003.
• Burke, Jim. Tools For Thought. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2002.
• Marzano, Robert J,; Pickering, Debra J.; and Pollock, Jane E. Classroom
Instruction that Works. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2001.
• Tovani, Cris. I Read it But I Don’t Get It. Portland, ME: Stenhouse
Publishers, 2000.
• Tsujimoto, Joseph I. Teaching Poetry to Young Adolescents. Urbana, Ill:
NCTE, 1988.