Post 7 Round 2 of #28daysofwriting: How to Sort out Research Skills

I continue to ponder the question of research skills, what they are and how they should be nurtured in our students.

Below are some thoughts on what skills are necessary by the time our students reach the end of their secondary schooling.  This is to be a list with no particular order of significance.

1. Note taking skills:  In grades 4 and 5 our LS librarian starts teaching students various ways of taking notes.  In particular the students enjoy sketch noting and get quite good at it.  It's a shame that they aren't able to develop it further but our grade 6 teachers know nothing about it.  Fact of the matter is, I don't think that students are given any further activities on note taking in middle school. Thus when they get to grades 9 and 10 we need to have a study skills course which includes note taking. What an irony!

So, what should we be doing?  Well students need to be able to take notes from both print and screens.  Each media requires different skills in respect to note taking.  We need to recognise how they are different and then find ways to help students acquire them.

More tomorrow.