proteacher

There’s nothing more frustrating to me than assigning students a research project, asking them to take notes, and having them turn in plagiarized work.  Although students who do this bear the responsibility of doing something dishonest and illegal, the teacher is at fault, too.  “What? How can that be?” a teacher might ask. “I simply assigned the task.  How am I at fault?”Teachers often assign tasks but fail to put restrictive parameters on the assignments prior to students doing research.  Teachers need to ask themselves the following questions.  Did I teach them how to take notes?  Did I refine my research questions so students CANNOT plagiarize?  Unless educators can honestly answer these questions in the affirmative, they too bear some responsibility for the plagiarized work.

Note taking should be simple.  Teach students how to take what I like to call “bullet-phrase” notes.  Taking phrase notes helps students pare down the research into the basics and discourages plagiarism.Here’s a quick way to teach note taking.  First, students are given a short article to read.  They are going should read the article and take phrase notes on all they remember.  The notes should look something like this—Notes on Ben Franklin (from Archiving Early America):

*Born 1/17/1706
*15th of 17 children
*Quit school @ 10 – worked in dad’s candle shop
*Loved to read
*Learned algebra & physics by reading
*Apprenticed to bro @ print shop
*Didn’t get along with brother
*Ran away-Boston @ 17
*Then to Pennsylvania
*Opened own print shop @ 22
*Made Pennsylvania Gazette popular newspaper
*Married Debra Read
*3 kids (2 boys/1 girl)
*Published Poor Richard’s Almanac
*Almanac = fame & money

If students then feel they didn’t get all the information necessary, they should turn over the article, read it again, and take a few more notes.  Then, before they begin writing a summary of the article, the teacher should collect all articles so students must write the summary based solely on their notes.  This, of course, isn’t the only way to take notes, but again it is simple to teach and simple to learn.

Yet another method of taking notes is mapping, which students generally love because computers are involved.  There are many mapping programs from which to choose, but many cost money.  Freemind is a program which is free to download and easy to use. And, it is a lot like the better-known mapping software, Inspiration.  This program enables students to take visual notes which many kids prefer.  Walk students through this program by having them read a short article.  Then using an LCD projector—this is done when all students have access to a computer—walk students through the process by taking notes together, eliciting student responses to create the notes.Finally, there are some other programs on the web that might prove useful for students taking notes at home.  One of those programs is Notepub, which is a web-based note taking program.  It is an online program, but notes are only made public if the user decides to allow that function.  This is for students who might be working on a group project together and need to share their research.  Another piece of software, NoteIt, is free and easy to download and use.  This program, too, allows students to share their notes for group projects; however, students share these notes via email. And finally, Notestar is a program which helps students take notes in preparation for writing research papers or group research projects.  It is free to use and allows teachers to manage and track student projects.

Let’s review:

1. Teach students how to take notes; don’t assume they already know this.
2. Notes should be “bullet-phrase” notes to help avoid plagiarism.
3. Use online programs for other effective methods of taking notes

I’ll end by reminiscing.  Growing up, I used to enjoy watching the old Charlie Chan murder mysteries.  In every episode, Charlie would impart wisdom to his eldest son by beginning with, “Number One Son, Confucius say…”  At this point, his number one son would roll his eyes and patiently listen to Charlie’s advice.  Now, with eyes already rolled, I can’t believe I’m actually saying this, but here goes.  Confucius once said, “The expectations of life depend upon diligence; the person that would perfect his work must first sharpen his tools.”  Learning to take notes is a skill—a tool—students need.  Let’s help students sharpen this tool so they can be successful in all classes.

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