taking notes

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone,

haven't posted in a long time but read your post often. I was wondering if

anyone has concerns with their child keeping up with taking notes in middle

school? What are some of the things you are doing to help out? As you know, if

you don't have all the notes - you can't study or be prepaired for a test.

right now, I'm trying to teach my child to type and pick up speed on the

computer. Have any of you had luck with this?

[Guest guest]

>

> Hi everyone,

> haven't posted in a long time but read your post often. I was wondering if

anyone has concerns with their child keeping up with taking notes in middle

school? What are some of the things you are doing to help out? As you know, if

you don't have all the notes - you can't study or be prepaired for a test.

> right now, I'm trying to teach my child to type and pick up speed on the

computer. Have any of you had luck with this?

My 14yo has an accommodation that he is given a hard copy/skeleton outline of

notes " with student effort " . By skeleton outline, they mean an outline with

some blanks that he has to fill in. I think all the evaluations he has ever had

have recommended this, and the school went along with it. It seems to work well

for him. I see the skeletons filled out in his binder and he has been getting

better grades on tests since they started really focusing on this. The teachers

were not comfortable just giving him notes, hence the required student effort

and skeletons. And I think this is good at his age. I guess you would have to

experiment with how much writing and listening at the same time your child can

do.

People also get their kids alphasmarts. These are little laptop word-processors

designed to be used for SPED kids in school. They can be used for taking notes,

taking tests, etc. The teacher can download from it into her computer. Most

kids with writing difficulties can type a lot better than they can write. Some

kids and schools really like these and some don't. If your school doesn't want

to buy one, they don't cost all that much (different models though). I'm sure

your child could find uses for it at home. Older kids sometimes just use

laptops. Now they have those netbooks too!

I haven't pushed the alphasmart/laptop, although I may soon as my son is going

into 9th grade and he needs to learn to take his own notes somehow. At the

moment, all the classrooms in our jr high have computers and he is allowed to

use them for note-taking, any test, etc. He doesn't want to be different and

has never done it so far. I described an alphasmart to him, and he said he

might be interested though.

Ruth

[Guest guest]

I do not have any personal experience with this tool, however, there is a middle school boy who attends my son's school who uses a "vita-scribe," (I think that is the name, however, I'm not certain.) which is a pen that is equipped with a recording device. The pen can be used for taking notes and when you stop writing, the "recording device" begins. This "pen" can be worn like a necklace and clicks onto a holder.

From: beachbodytan2002 <beachbodytan2002@...>Subject: ( ) taking notes Date: Saturday, May 2, 2009, 7:23 AM

Hi everyone,haven't posted in a long time but read your post often.. I was wondering if anyone has concerns with their child keeping up with taking notes in middle school? What are some of the things you are doing to help out? As you know, if you don't have all the notes - you can't study or be prepaired for a test.right now, I'm trying to teach my child to type and pick up speed on the computer. Have any of you had luck with this?

[Guest guest]

we have an accomodation that she gets written notes in 5th grade.

Some private schools teach there kids to use alphasmarts for

notetaking.

>

> Hi everyone,

> haven't posted in a long time but read your post often. I was wondering if

anyone has concerns with their child keeping up with taking notes in middle

school? What are some of the things you are doing to help out? As you know, if

you don't have all the notes - you can't study or be prepaired for a test.

> right now, I'm trying to teach my child to type and pick up speed on the

computer. Have any of you had luck with this?

>

[Guest guest]

Donna,

that is exactly what I want them to do. Let my son take his own notes on his lap top, then have notes given to him. this way, he gets to practice taking notes and has a copy for the missing parts.

From: Donna <donnalmoore@...>" " < >Sent: Saturday, May 2, 2009 2:44:23 PMSubject: Re: ( ) taking notes

My son takes notes on a portable word processor or Alphasmart. But he also gets a copy of notes from the teacher.Sent from my iPhone

Blessings, Donna

On May 2, 2009, at 6:23 AM, "beachbodytan2002" <beachbodytan2002> wrote:

Hi everyone,haven't posted in a long time but read your post often. I was wondering if anyone has concerns with their child keeping up with taking notes in middle school? What are some of the things you are doing to help out? As you know, if you don't have all the notes - you can't study or be prepaired for a test.right now, I'm trying to teach my child to type and pick up speed on the computer. Have any of you had luck with this?

[Guest guest]

My daughter is in 6th. Teachers give out "skeleton notes", in outline form, very straightforward and taken from the textbook. Students are given class time to reference their textbooks and fill in the blanks. If they can't finish during that time, sometimes over a couple of days, then they finish with the Sp Ed teacher during study skills class. So far, has been ok with that...

[Guest guest]

Hi Jillian,

As I explained to Ruth - I've never heard of skeleton notes. the more I read from others on this - the more interesting it sounds. Seems like its working for those who are using this.

Thanks

Rose

From: jillian shimko <jillian_shimko@...> Sent: Saturday, May 2, 2009 10:49:22 PMSubject: Re: ( ) taking notes

My daughter is in 6th. Teachers give out "skeleton notes", in outline form, very straightforward and taken from the textbook. Students are given class time to reference their textbooks and fill in the blanks. If they can't finish during that time, sometimes over a couple of days, then they finish with the Sp Ed teacher during study skills class. So far, has been ok with that...

[Guest guest]

Dear Ruth, and other parents,

The one problem with an Alpha-Smart (which my son used for several years in middle school and high school) is limited memory. This turned out to be a problem when he used it for writing assignments in 9th-grade English class. The assignments were supposed to be printed out and put into a folder that the teacher would look at later to calculate each student's grade. My son did the writing assignments, but for some reason couldn't print them all out immediately afterwards. So when he had another assignment but not enough Alpha-Smart memory to save it, he deleted the earlier assignments. Then when the teacher looked into his folder to grade his work, she found ... nothing! He was about to get an F in that class, but after I explained to her what had happened, she trusted him enough to believe he had carried out the assignments, and gave him a C instead.

It could be that later models of Alpha-Smart have more memory -- I don't know because my son graduated from high school in 2004. After this happened, the school system lent him a laptop -- which somehow got lost. We think he left it in the Social Studies classroom but didn't make sure it was locked up in a closet, so it was probably stolen. We were about to be charged for the full cost (which would have been several hundred dollars), but the assistive technology person decided that it was partly the school system's fault that he lost it, so she didn't make us pay.

All this is a long-winded way of saying that Alpha-Smarts and laptops are a great idea, but you also need to be aware of things that can go wrong and guard against them.

Jill