Graphic Organizers, And What Notes Need to Look Like

Everybody has their own style of note-taking. That is true, but note-taking has to be effective. It was to WORK. The problem with some note-taking is that it is not organized or thorough enough: Notes are minimal, details are absent and the notes are confusing when looked at the next day or the next week. That defeats the purpose of note-taking.

Here are some steps to keep your notes organized:

1) Use a graphic organizer like Cornell Notes, or design your own.
2) Make lists and leave room to fill in blanks
3) Use charts that help you understand things.

Today we will look at different types of note-taking strategies, and apply them to the notes you have on your character. Use a graphic organizer or demonstrate on paper a systematic approach to note-taking. You should be able to use your notes to write an essay or paper. The notes have to "work."

Here are some organizers that could work with Dazed and Confused:
Clusterweb Graphic Organizer
Sequence of Events Graphic Organizer
Five W's Graphic Organizer
Story Map Graphic Organizer
Time Order Chart
Venn Diagram

For more graphic organizers, go to "Education Place," a web site created by publishers Houghton Mifflin.

"Dazed and Confused" Character Analysis

Today's Question: How do you observe and draw conclusions about a character?

1) Pick up your own folder from the bin and check it for notes and comments.

2) Get character names (link available on previous post).

3) Take notes during the conclusion of the film, as needed.

At the conclusion of the film, write for ten minutes about the personal journey the person has taken throughout the film. How did they start off, and what have they learned? what is the journey of this particular character? What happens to them during the course of the film?

To complete this writing assignment, you should have:
1) The name of the character
2) A physical description of the character
3) A psychological description of the character: what is his or her personality?
4) A description of the action and development of the character throughout the film.

Character Profiles

Here are some basic profiles of the characters in "Dazed and Confused." Character Profiles. Once you pick your MAIN character, describe in detail this person's personality, describe their looks, and describe what happens to them in the story.

"Dazed and Confused" and Historical Research

We're looking at the movie "Dazed and Confused" to find historical accuracy. The director and actors in this movie had to know what the 70's was really like in order to make it authentic.

Monday's In-Class Assignment:
As you watch the movie, write down at least ten things you see that are different than they are today. Describe each thing. How is it different?

Tuesday:
Pick a specific character. Observe that character as you continue to watch the film. What can you say about that character?
How do they look?
How are they dressed?
What is their personality?

We will watch the movie. Write notes as you watch. Then you will have five minutes to describe them in detail on paper.

Then: pair up with someone else who has picked that character. Share your write-ups. Combine the best of both. Then we will share out.

Careers that Need Historical Research

What Aspects of Life Have Changed, Historically?
Assignment: Watching the movie, identify 10 things that have changed, and describe what they were like back then.

different immigrant groups
transportation
technology (no cell phones)
other kinds of cars
different kinds of busses
tokens for trains (copper/bronze discs)
fashion: 70’s afros, very colorful clothing,
music: jazz, blues, punk, country, pop, record players,
(walk mans, 8-tracks, boom boxes, juke boxes)
dance: electric slide, break dancing,
different laws
food changed
food prices changed

Historical Research Can be Used By…

Taxi drivers - to understand when someone uses an old name of a street or place
Tour guides - to talk about what happened in a particular neighborhood or place
Archeologists - to understand remains
Government officials – to understand political history
Writers - to be historically accurate in their stories
Journalists – accurate information
News reporters – historical context of current events
Social studies teachers - to know what happened in history so that they can explain it to students
Doctors – to know previous cures, treatments, and patient histories
Scientists - to know how experiments have gone in the past
Politicians – to be informed, to be accurate
Entrepreneurs – to learn from other entrepreneurs’ mistakes
Fashion – to be inspired by past trends
Lawyers – to know different cases in the past
Actors – when they have to act out scenes from the past, to know what it was like then and act accordingly
Directors – to be historically accurate, so their movies are believable

Steps to Making Your Essay The Best It Can Be

The class came up with the following steps to help improve essays:

Plan your information before you write it.
Make sure your introduction has enough information.
Make a valid conclusion.
Don’t be repetitive.
People have different styles.
Finish the assignment.
Re-read.
Proof-read.
If you make a mistake in your essay, you should not make the paper look messy.
Watch out for run-on sentences.
Write longer paragraphs.
Put in more details.
Use a lot of examples from the story (or text).
Have at least one other person look at your paper before you turn it in.
You write your essay and you think it’s good, but when you see the rubric, you see what the real criteria (qualifications) are for a good paper.
Make sure your conclusion is wrapped up tightly.
Keep your essay well organized.
Watch your penmanship.
Be understandable.
Be clear.
Be specific.
Make sure your sentences make sense.
Check for spelling.

Evaluating Using The Rubric

How do we equally apply the rubric, really understanding the way it functions?

As we looked at the rubric we identified words that were new to us. Here is a list of the class's new vocabulary words:

Valid = legitimate; legally acceptable; not expired; logical; well-founded

Sparse = far and few between

Minimal = very little

Sophisticated = classy, smart, well-read, intelligent, experienced in the world, well-educated, complex

Analysis = The separation of a whole into its component parts in order to study the parts and their relation to the whole

Thesis = an unproved statement put forward as a premise in an argument

Viable = clear, something that can be verified

Then we began to identify vocabulary in the first student essay:
Infrastructure =
1) An underlying base or foundation, especially for an organization or system
2) The basic facilities, services and installations needed for the functioning of a community or society

and we verified the spelling of the word
definitely

We identified criteria for evaluating the essays, and began to apply it to student-created essays that we examined as a group. Students corrected grammar, punctuation and spelling errors in the first essay.

Informed Peer Review: Evaluating Your Writing Using the Rubric and Your Grammar Handouts

Steps to Analyzing, Correcting and Evaluating Your Essay:

1.) Your partner must be someone you do not know.

2.) You should sit across from your partner at the tables in the classroom.

3.) Read the essay, aloud or silently, with pencil in hand. Make corrections as needed, using the Grammar handouts on Commas, Apostrophes and Spelling as references.

4.) Attach a copy of the rubric to the essay. What score would you give the overall paper? In the "Comments" area, make notes describing three or four steps the author of the essay should take to improve their work in the future.

Welcome to Cycle 5, Spring 2011

Our last unit in Cycle 4 had to do with reading, understanding what you're reading and then drawing conclusions based on what you'd learned. The assignment required you to think about what the implications are for us, as we consider the disaster in Japan.

In writing, meaning is key, but form is also a necessary element. Form ensures that our writing communicates what we mean effectively.

What tools do we have at our disposal that help us to write well? We have our Rules of Comma Use, Rules of Apostrophe Use, and Spelling and Grammar Tips. Those are all available to the right of this post, under "Handouts." Let's use these tools to make sure our writing meets a minimum standard of good writing. Along with "development", these tools will ensure that we communicate effectively.

Instructions for Final Writing Assignment for Cycle 4

Assignment: Written Response to Tsunami Article

1. Using either the Cornell Notes sheet or the handout for this assignment, list the most important points in the article.

2. Write an essay of approximately a page and a half on lined 8.5x11 paper, responding to the questions below. USE YOUR NOTES to create your first paragraph.
In your first paragraph, paraphrase: What have you learned about the earthquake/tsunami disaster in Japan by reading the article?
In your second and third paragraphs, explain your ideas about what the American people, the American government, and we, as individuals should do if this kind of thing ever happened here in New York. What would you suggest the government do, and what would you do for yourself and your family?
DO NOT respond to this assignment in question and answer format. This assignment must be done in essay format. In order to get credit for this assignment you must also turn in your notes.

Reading, Identifying Key Points, Drawing Conclusions

Write an essay in response to The New York Times' Article on the Tsunami in Japan.

First, on the handout in the classroom, read the article with a highlighter, and note the salient (most important) points. Then take your notes.
1. What are the most important points in the article (write them in note form) on the handout:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

Next, in essay format, paraphrase: What have you learned about the earthquake/tsunami disaster in Japan?
a) What should we (the American people, the American government, and we, as individuals) do if this kind of thing should ever happen here in New York?

b)What would you suggest the government do, and what would you do for yourself and your family?

Write the responses to these questions in an essay of approximately a page and a half on lined 8.5x11 notebook paper.

How to know if a web site is legitimate?

• The site has to have good information from a reliable source. Is the source reliable? Does the person writing the document/web site have the education necessary to speak about this topic?
• What are the credentials?
• Who’s behind the web site? What other organizations does that person refer to? Who do they say is behind it? Is there a group of people? Who are they?
• What is the URL? What is the root directory?
• References – follow the links. Are they legitimate?
• Check “About Us” and “Contact Us”.
• Google the names and organizations
• How current Is the website? – Check the date, if there is one.

Determining Validity: Identifying Bias

We looked at establishing the legitimacy and reputability of a web site. We also must look at language on websites to determine the bias of the web site. Let's look at the websites we examined yesterday. What is bias, and what words indicate bias in the language of the websites?

The class will discuss their findings of yesterday, and we will examine some of the websites to determine their bias.

What other agencies or organizations or institutions or media outlets do you know of who clearly have a bias? What does "bias" really mean? We can be biased in favor of something, just as we can be biased against it. What biases do we find in our own thinking?

How Do You Assess a Web Site?

Look up these websites:
Global Warming Solutions http://www.globalwarmingsolutions.org
Global Warming http://www.globalwarming.org/
Big Bang Theory http://www.big-bang-theory.com/
The Big Bang http://www.umich.edu/~gs265/bigbang.htm

What organizations or agencies or people are behind these sites? Are they legitimate sources for Global Warming and The Big Bang Theory? Why? Why not? Complete this Web Site Assessment Form with your responses.

How to you Verify a Source?

You found a lot of information on the internet. Now, how do you know it's good information? When you meet someone in the street do you immediately believe their story? How do you figure out if they're legit? You need the same "street smarts" when you evaluate internet web sites. Read today's handout (see below) to learn ways to evaluate web sites.

What Does Good Research Look Like?

In order to do good research, there are some skills and techniques you have to practice. In today's class we began to identify those methods. As a class, we came up with the following strategies that are essential for good Internet research:

CHOOSE A GOOD SEARCH ENGINE:

I recommend Google. There are other many other search engines, but if you want to use another one, ask me, and we'll look at it together to decide if it's a good one to use for the type of research that you're conducting.

BE CAREFUL ABOUT HOW YOU PHRASE YOUR SEARCH.
When you type your search terms into the search engine (for instance, Google):
• Use correct grammar and spelling
• Be as specific as possible
• Be thorough
• Narrow your search, so you get exactly what you want

Vary your search terms. For example, when researching early rap: “KRS1” or “KRS One” or “Chris Parker” or “Kris Parker,” or other things associated with him, like
the term “Edutainment” could work to get you the results you’re looking for.
Use quotation marks around your search term, if the words have to go together. For example, Chris Parker becomes “Chris Parker,” so that you don’t get everyone named Chris, and all the Parkers in the world.
When you type words in, your search engine is going to search for all those words in addition to those words in combination. So, for example,

prom dresses Spanish Harlem

will result in Google searching for everything that has the word "prom," the word "dresses," the word "Spanish" and the word "Harlem," in addition to looking for "prom dresses" and "Spanish Harlem."

In order to get ONLY prom dresses in Spanish Harlem, you would need to put each phrase in quotes. That tells the search engine to only look for those words in those exact combinations. So you can search Google by typing in

"prom dresses" "Spanish Harlem"

However, there may be stores in Spanish Harlem that are not listed because they do not use the phrase "Spanish Harlem" in their own pages. Perhaps they use "Upper East Side," or "East Harlem" or simply list the street on which they are located, like "3rd Avenue," or "Third Avenue," or "116th Street" or "116 St". All of these are different search terms. If you really want to find a place in Spanish Harlem, you may have to try all these things. ALSO, A LOT OF STORES, INSTITUTIONS, and BOOKS DO NOT HAVE WEBSITES. Everything that exists is not online. A person might have a store and not make a website for it.
We found out that a lot of stores in Spanish Harlem that sell prom dresses do not have websites. That does not mean they do not exist. Lots of places that exist are not online.

WHEN TRYING TO FIND DETAILED INFORMATION OR READ A BOOK, REMEMBER:
Sometimes you actually have to go to a library to read a document or book on the topic. Usually, entire books are not online, especially new ones. The only entire books that are online are public domain books (like Shakespeare, Chaucer, etc). You can find many public domain books online at Project Gutenberg. You can also check out authorama.com.

WHO CREATED THE WEBSITE?
Find out who wrote the information on the website, and write down those details.

ASK YOURSELF: Who are they? Who is the author of the website? What organization or group is behind it?

ARE THEY REPUTABLE?
• Have you already heard about the authors or institutions behind the website and do you know that they're reputable already? (for instance, students suggested that one might go to merriam-webster.com, because we already know that they are a good company that publishes dictionaries.)
• Always verify your information by looking at more than one reputable source.
• Read the information on the website carefully. Is it sound? Does it make sense? Does it seem credible?
• Determine who wrote the website by looking at “Contact Us,” or “About Us,” or the citations and bibliography at the bottom, or
• Verify your source by making sure you look at more than one source.

ARE THEY RELIABLE?
• Is there a second website that confirms the information on that website?
• When did they update their page last?
• Google the owner and/or author.

WHAT DOES THE URL TELL YOU?
• Go back to the root directory of the website to see who hosted it. For example, in the url: http://www.columbia.edu/texts/religion/philosophy.html, the root directory is www.columbia.edu. When looking at the root directory, look for the type of website it is. You can find that out by looking at the letters that come after the first dot. For example:

o .org = organization (non-profit)
o .edu = college or university (- usually. Sometimes it’s a school system.)
o .net = is a commercial designation. (In other words, anyone can get it.)
o .com = company or commercial. Anyone can have one.
o .gov = U.S. Government web site.
o .info = information about some agency or group.
Two letter codes, are country codes, but they are commercial.
o .uk = United Kingdom (also called Great Britain).
o .ca = Canada
o .tv = Tuvalu
o de = Germany
o fr = France

What Must Be in Your Folder in Order To Receive Credit for This Assignment

1) Your PowerPoint must be complete and you must get it saved to the flash drive.

2) You must have THREE WEB SITE PARAPHRASE FORMS (Named "WebsiteParaphraseForm1","WebsiteParaphrase2" and "WebsiteParaphrase3") in your folder. These forms establish that the words on your slide are actually your own words, and are not plagiarized. You must have the URLs (web addresses) of those pieces of information on each form.

Your three Web Site Paraphrase Forms are essential, and must be in your folder in order to receive credit.