How to know when to take a note:
- When there is a BIG moment in the story
- When the story makes you wonder about something
- When the characters show a strong emotion
How to take notes:
- Focus on the main point
- Your notes don’t have to be full sentences
- Make your notes neat and legible
- Use abbreviations and symbols when possible
- Note the page number
- Consider reading the entire paragraph, and then going back and highlighting the important words and ideas
- Don’t highlight just for fun, it will confuse you! Make it meaningful and highlight only important words and ideas
- Take notes in the margins of the books, but make sure you have enough room
- If you write big, or like to be detailed, use a reading notebook to take notes
During reading, use Sticky Notes to mark:
- An interesting part
- A prediction
- Something to infer to understand the text
- Your connections to the text
- Words you need help with
- A new fact you learned
- A part you don’t understand
- Thoughts you have about the text
- Words or phrases you want to use in your writing
- Your favorite part
- A question you may have
Be sure to write the page numbers on the sticky notes. Place the stickies into your readers notebook on a page with the title of the book and the date you finished it.