Note-Taking
What it looks like
• It’s an organized list of the key information, so:
– Don’t use complete sentences
– CaPitalization is not important
– Neither is punctuation?!.
– You can use abbreviations
– You can even draw a picture if that helps
• Use bullets, dashes, hyphens and commas to
keep your notes organized.
Think of text messages
• Young people are able to condense long
passages into few letters.
• They skip over the unnecessary words and just
use the most essential and abbreviations to
get their messages across.
• For example: L2G=Like to go?
• Or ?= I don’t understand what you mean.
Or think of grocery shopping lists
I need to buy a carton of • Eggs
eggs. Then I will need to • frozen orange juice
find the orange juice, but • milk
it will be in the frozen • 2 cans diced tomatoes
section not where the milk • Cheerios
is. I do need to get milk
too. I will also need to buy
two cans of diced
tomatoes. Then I will go to
the cereal aisle and buy a
box of Cheerios
Or think like cave people
Do they say: No! They say:
I’m very concerned about • Fire bad!!
this new invention of fire.
It’s very hot and I’m afraid
that something terrible
may happen!!
Do they say:
No! They say:
• Wheel good!!
Golly, this new invention
of the wheel will be very
handy!
Passage on bull frogs
The bullfrog is the largest of The bullfrog is the largest of
the American frogs. And the the American frogs. And the
females are larger than the females are larger than the
males. Bullfrogs live in males. Bullfrogs live in
colonies in or near bodies of colonies in or near bodies of
still water. They are very still water. They are very
territorial animals. A male territorial animals. A male
will spend weeks facing will spend weeks facing
another male in a sort of another male in a sort of
ritual fight. They stand on ritual fight. They stand on
their hind legs and embrace. their hind legs and embrace.
In winter, they hibernate, In winter, they hibernate,
burrowing into mud at the burrowing into mud at the
bottom of ponds. bottom of ponds.
Let’s try this again
The bullfrog is the largest of • largest US frog
the American frogs. And the
females are larger than the • females biggest
males. Bullfrogs live in
colonies in or near bodies of • live together
still water. They are very • home=still water
territorial animals. A male
will spend weeks facing • like their space, will fight
another male in a sort of
ritual fight. They stand on • they hug
their hind legs and embrace.
In winter, they hibernate, • winter=hibernate
burrowing into mud at the •Bottom of pond
bottom of ponds.