Identifying Important Information:

     Students often struggle with identifying important information in lessons and reading material. They often pick up on unimportant information when they actually need to focus on different information. Teachers can help students learn and identify key information by letting the students know what teachers think are the most important ideas within the information. One way to do so is by telling them exactly what the information is you would like them to know, or you can take another route. The other route is to: provide a list of objectives for a lesson, write key concepts and relationships on the chalkboard, and ask questions that focus student’s attention on important ideas. This way tends to aid the students that struggle more. If they are prompted by ideas and they come upon the answers on their own they are more likely to remember that.

     I think that it is important to teach this skill to students, especially in today's curriculum. My students really struggle with math story problems, especially when there is extra information that they do not need. In reading comprehension questions there is also sometimes too much information given that does not matter in a question. 

Retrieving Relevant Prior Knowledge:

     It is important for teachers to encourage and teach students to retrieve relevant information when they are studying. If they do this, they will have better luck retaining the information and thus, they will do better on exams. One way to teach students to do this is by modeling the behavior when in the classroom. For example, when going over information and lessons in the classroom the teacher can take breaks to review and go over the main points and topics discussed so far. This teaches students that this is a valuable thing to do on their own also. We can also give students specific questions to help aid them in retrieving information such as: what do you already know about your topic, what do you hope to learn about your topic, and do you think what you lean by reading your books will change what you already know about your topic?

     I think this is also an important concept to teach students because they are always going to have to retrieve prior knowledge to figure out math problems or something that was previously read. 

Taking Notes:

     Note taking is a huge skill that students need to learn. Note taking will follow them through college and the rest of their lives. Students who take more notes generally learn and remember classroom subject matter better. It does not mean that the quality goes unnoticed, however. The quality must be up to par for the notes to be effective. Useful notes outline the main ideas of the lesson given. We can aid students in learning how to take notes by providing them with a specific structure to use or give them constructive feedback on their notebooks. This is one skill that I find extremely important.

     I am always encouraging my students to take notes in Math and Reading. In Math it is easy for them to take notes because the first two pages of the GoMath curriculum of the lesson, we do together. In Reading we fill out graphic organizers and that is their note taking so they can remember a particular type of skill. 

Organizing Information:

     Outlining is an extremely useful strategy to help students learn how to organize information in a successful and informational way. Concept maps are also very useful in depicting the main ideas of the lesson and the relationships throughout.

     As I stated above under taking notes, one way my students practice organizing information is through graphic organizers whether it is an order of events or cause and effect  situations. 

Creating Summaries:

     Creating a summary includes distinguishing between important and unimportant information, synthesizing details into more general ideas, and identifying important relationships within the ideas. Teachers can help students acquire these skills by asking students to summarize on a regular basis.

     I think that creating summaries for students, or having students provide their own summary, to what has been taught is a really good idea. This allows the teacher to go over what they may have missed or what needs  to be worked on a little more. 

Monitoring Comprehension:

     Monitoring comprehension is an important skill that teachers need to aquire. Teachers should continuously be monitoring what their students are comprehending. There are many different ways to monitor comprehension. For example a teacher can give formal reading comprehension assessments (tests), worksheets, or even oral discussion. 

     I am constantly monitoring comprehension with my students. For Reading I give a comprehension test every week over the excerpt that we read. There are also worksheets to go with each day's reading. In Math, there is an assignment with every lesson that shows me how well the lesson went or if it needs to be retaught. At the end of the chapter a summative assessment is given to determine what they retained through the entire chapter.