Rick Winter - Teacher at JA Back Door, Author, School Board, and Life Long Student
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ChapterNotes

Click here for instructions when working on your first chapter or to review how to do chapter notes.

Parents and teachers: See note on standards at bottom of this document.

Why am I doing this?

Summarizing

Do you realize why you take notes in class or the teacher asks you to summarize what you are reading? As teachers we're taught that there are different ways of knowing something. When you are reading, you can sound out letters and say words. Or, in computer books you can follow steps and create a document. But did you really learn what the text was saying? One of the ways to improve your learning is to be able to summarize what you are reading. This is the purpose of the ChapterNotes assignment. I don't want you to spend a long time with the summary, just give me a few words and where you found the information. So if the section in the book talks about saving a file, all I need you to type are the menu and submenu name -- File, Save. Your ability to take a large chunk of text or lecture and summarize it with a few words is an important skill that will help you learn new things for your entire life.

Documenting

Documenting your research is another important skill. If you need to go back and lookup information or if you need to put in footnotes for a paper, you'll need to write down where you learned something. Therefore, I'm asking for you to put the page number in the book. Finally, knowing when you applied your learning to the document you create is another way of demonstrating your knowledge. That is why I'm asking for you to describe to me when you actually did the steps for a procedure in your own document.

Preparation for College and the Work Learning

While I'm trying to simulate the work world by giving you a large number of tasks to complete and introducing you to project management through your Goals&Effort workbook, the main purpose of the ChapterNotes document is to help your scholarship. By completing your ChapterNotes, you will cement your learning, have a document you can use to study for tests, and have a document you can use for assignments or other work you do.

I create a document very similar to ChapterNotes when I'm writing books. People often copy these pages or we create tear out cards and call them "cheat sheets." Even though ChapterNotes at times can be tedious, this is one of the things I did for many of my classes from high school, college, graduate school, and teacher education and it helped me with my learning. In fact, if you want to practice this for other classes, I would add a picture element. In addition to words, try to draw an image of what you're learning. That will help you even more. If you draw pictures or animations, you'll only have to do 5 notes per chapter, whereas if you do text, you'll do 10 notes per chapter. You get extra credit if you do more than 10 notes per chapter.

Instructions (Finally)

For those that were in my classes in the last two years, ChapterNotes are similar to Objectives, but with more flexibility and more options for you to be creative.

1. You already downloaded the starting document. Go into your class folder and open ChapterNotesStart in Microsoft Word. Delete the parts of the document that do not pertain to your class. Here are the parts that do pertain to your class:

1. For Office 1:
   1. Excel 1, 2, 3 (book 1)
   2. Access 1, 2, 3 (book 1)
   3. Word 1-6 (books 1 & 2)
2. For Office 2:
   1. Excel 4, 5, 6 (book 2)
   2. Access 4, 5, 6 (book 2)
   3. PowerPoint 1-4 (books 1 & 2)
3. Internet -- all chapters
4. Flash -- all chapters
5. Dreamweaver -- all chapters
6. Flash 2 - Create on your own.
7. GameFlash -Create on your own.

2. Type your three-line document id in the footer.
3. Save your document again in the three places with the correct name. It is in the format of (O1/O2/I/F/F2/D/GF/GV-0-Q3A/B/C-LastNameF-ChapterNotes).
4. Read the objectives or skim the chapters for your class. Are there any chapters that you think you know everything? Come talk to me and we'll test your knowledge and see what we can do to get new content for you.

If you wish, you can stop reading here. Come back when you start your first chapter.

-----------------------------

Read this when start first chapter

Hidden Prize if you find this by 4/12/2007. In your email, copy above your name. "Hah! I found the 4/12 ChapterNotes prize. I mustn't forget to come back here when I'm looking at my first chapter." Then tell me if you want 5 extra minute points or candy.

Come back to this location when you are reading your first chapter. This is what you'll do when you are working in the ChapterNotes file -- while you are going through each chapter. Below is an example in Word. If you are doing another application, you still need to have similar information.

Points:

Steps:

1. In the second column (10 points), do one of the following:
   1. Type keywords of steps you do such as menu items (File, Save), name of toolbar button (Save button), or keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+S or F12). Do not type word for word what is in the chapter.
   2. Type an explanation if required (for objectives that ask to describe, explain, or answer a question).
2. In the third column (10 points), type one of the following:
   1. Page number in book where this objective first appeared (hint: look at end of chapter or do this as you read the chapter).
   2. Specific text you typed while you were creating the first document in the chapter.
   3. A location such as a cell in Excel.
   4. The name of the object (such as a table, query, field, or text) in Access.
   5. The name of the Web page in Internet and Dreamweaver and the location on the page (top, line 5, or text)
   6. The object (such as blue ball) or layer and part of the screen (upper left, center, etc) in Flash.
3. You don't need to fill in the fourth column until you do the Personal Assignment.

Here is what an example of ChapterNotes for a chapter looks like (before the personal assignment):

Word Project 1 – Creating and Editing a Word Document

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Standard Notes for ChapterNotes Assignment

Note: To students. You don't have to read this, but you can. This is more officially why I'm doing this.

English

Students can use my form to summarize technical information.
 

Colorado Standard 1) Students read and understand

 a variety of materials.

    Colorado Basic Literacy Act (CBLA) 9th grade proficiency: b) Summarize, synthesize, and evaluate information from a variety of text and genre (for example... technical text)

    Colorado Basic Literacy Act (CBLA) 12th grade proficiency: e) Summarize, synthesize, and evaluate ... technical texts.

Colorado Standard 5) Students read to locate, select, and make use of relevant information from a variety of media, references, and technological sources

    Colorado Basic Literacy Act (CBLA) 9th grade proficiency: b) Summarize and organize information about a topic in a variety of ways (for example, graphic organizer ...) from references, technical sources, and media

    Colorado Basic Literacy Act (CBLA) 12th grade proficiency: c) Paraphrase, summarize, organize and synthesize information from a variety of sources.

Technology

Students can demonstrate to me that they know at least one way to perform a procedure within an application.
 

National Educational Technology Standards for Students (NETS) - http://cnets.iste.org/students/s_stands.html

NETS Standard 1. Basic operations and concepts: Students demonstrate a sound understanding of the nature and operation of technology systems;    Students are proficient in the use of technology.

NET Standard 3. Technology productivity tools: Students use technology tools to enhance learning...

Bloom's Taxonomy

Knowledge (define, fill in the blank)

Comprehension (paraphrase, summarize, restate, put in own words)

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Last updated: 04/01/2007

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