In 6th Grade Social Studies, the students had a chance to practice their current events skills. When reading an article from a newspaper/magazine, it is important to understand how to summarize it properly. Students were broken up into four groups, and each group was given a different article to read. In each group there was a reader, note provider, and a note taker. Students were also asked to write down any new vocabulary words they found. The students had to identify who, what, where, why, when, and how. The goal was to extract the significant details from the article. When their time was up, each group had to trade their notes with another group. Then, each group had to use these notes to write a summary. After each group presented, it was clear that taking careful notes and answering each question thoroughly, was extremely important. The groups that did not have enough information, were not able to write a sophisticated summary about the article. As a wrap up, the class discussed what types of details they should have included in their notes. This was a great lesson on note taking.
