No Parent Left Behind article about organization

This article was published in the Suburban News Publication in 2007
Teens today study while they IM their friends, listen to their ipods, and update their Facebook accounts. This kind of stimulation can have two negative academic effects for students: students don’t practice sustaining their attention so they often struggle when they are reading, and students expect a teacher’s lessons to be as entertaining as MTV. Unfortunately, much of the information in school is disseminated through lecture, guided notes, and other auditory means. While many teachers try to spice it up with technology, most formal settings, including business seminars and other continuing education, are often presented in an auditory manner.
Learning to organize one's thoughts through good note-taking can help your child get the most out of school and keep him active during the learning process. Simplifying the note-taking process allows students the ability to focus on what is being taught.
Some subjects require that teachers use text books and teach from those texts. The disorganized student should jump up and click his heels when he encounters this type of teacher. Textbook writers set up the book in a simple manner so it is easy to reduce the information. Take history, for example. Let's say your child is studying the French Revolution. The history book will have a chapter called the French Revolution and then several sections. The sections will address one of the following key questions: who, what, when, where, why and how. Most students can predict the kinds of questions the text or the teacher will answer for each of those broad key questions.
Divide up a piece of paper into six sections. Put one of the six questions in each box. Each lesson, have your child write the name of the chapter, the six questions and the questions he predicts he will have to answer before the end of the unit. Each time the teacher answers a question, have him write the answer in the appropriate box. For example, the teacher may ask “Who” fought in the French Revolution, “Why” the disagreement couldn’t be settled diplomatically, or “When” the major battles occurred. Once the unit is over and your child is studying for the test, he only has six major topics to remember, and he can check off the information in the box as he masters it. Not only is this note taking system effective, it will teach your child to ask questions before he reads a text and reinforce the reading strategies good readers use.
This system can work in any subject because all subjects will address the six main questions, even math. This system also works when teachers give out guided notes, which are usually in outline form. Each section of the outline will most likely relate to one major question. Students can also use the study sheet while reading textbooks. They will have effectively reduced the information in the text to a much more manageable size.
The “Big 6” note taking strategy will work until the student runs into a reading passage he doesn't understand. One disturbing habit I see in my students is they stop reading at the first sign of trouble. If they encounter too many big words, or if they find a passage they cannot immediately understand, they stop reading and come to class the next day complaining that "I don't get it." When I ask them what they don't get, they cannot answer me. Probing further is often fruitless and ends in frustration on both sides.
Little sticky notes can be the saving experience for this student. Buy some of the little strips of sticky notes or the smaller rectangular ones. The square ones are too big. Any time a student runs into a word he doesn't know, he can stick it, and move on. Any time he is reading and cannot visualize what is happening in the story, or if he finds himself reading the same passage over and over without understanding it, he can stick it and move on. When he arrives to class the following day, he can open his book to the exact location he found confusing and let the teacher interpret with him. The teacher will know he put in the effort and read the assignment and will be happy to clarify any of the passages he didn't understand.
Sticky notes can also be invaluable note taking tools during class. Teachers often point to specific passages from novels or texts. Those passages often contain information the students will see on the final test. When a teacher makes reference to a specific passage from a novel or text, stick it. Studying for the test then becomes a two part process: making sure you know all the information on the Big 6 note taking sheets, and reviewing the facts in the passages with sticky notes.