Teach-Primary-Issue-19.7

Write it down Learning to how to take notes at an early age ensures that pupils can summarise information, assess material from different sources, and develop better comprehension skills. Mastering this skillset can have long-term consequences, improving self-confidence and future academic performance. This is a subject all too familiar to The Dyslexia Association, whose teachers help many young children cope with the problem. “Our organisation works one-to-one with students on note-taking techniques and strategies such as mind mapping, flow charts, and using software that can help organise information and thoughts,” says director Kay Carter. All teachers are aware that every minute in the classroom is precious, but making sure that dyslexic pupils have a chance to practise skills doesn’t have to P roject work, comprehension exercises, and writing about events form part of the everyday experience of a primary school child. Learning to summarise information, identify points within a narrative, and to make notes helps develop this type of writing activity, and of course, are important transferrable skills in and of themselves. But how do you identify what they key points of the lesson are? What if you miss something important? How do you condense several sentences into just a few words? Learning to do this is hard for any child – but for those with dyslexia, the problems are often magnified. For dyslexic children, the key problem when trying to take notes concerns the way they structure and process information. Dyslexic children struggle to read, write and concentrate all at the same time, and it can be especially tiring for young children, thus causing lapses in concentration. Pupils need to learn how to focus on key aspects of a subject, while also reading instructions and trying to write down information. Common abbreviations like e.g ., and approx. can add to the confusion, likewise with letters that look similar to one another, such as b and d or g and q . take extra time. Teaching note-taking techniques will actually benefit the whole class, simply because these are such essential skills. Creating a summary on the whiteboard of what has been taught during a class helps show the value of these skills. Highlighting key points also helps dyslexic pupils, because dyslexia can often affect working memory and processing speed. The key is... The first task is to show how to focus in on key 40 | www.teachwire.net Sticky NOTES aspects of a project or piece of work, such as identifying and explaining any new vocabulary. Kay suggests that “teachers prepare word banks and visual information for new terminology or vocabulary”. Encouraging children to approach a subject by asking Pupils have a better chance of understanding and remembering information if they master note-taking, says Angela Youngman – but for children with dyslexia, this challenge can feel insurmountable... “Teaching note-taking techniques so that children can identify effective strategies will benefit the whole class”