What it is. Taking notes from text is different from taking them from speech: you control the pace.
Why our test works. With a book open, children copy — the text is right there and copying feels safe. Naming the difference between copying and CHOOSING is what turns note-taking into thinking, and it cannot be seen from the outside unless you ask.
Leans on. Lesson 3 and Grade 3 lesson 7.
Watch for. A note longer than the sentence it came from is a copy. Set a word limit if needed.
Outline from a text rather than from listening. The worked example is the one you build on the board: Teacher reads a paragraph aloud with the text visible, and outlines it while thinking alou The class reads Writing Book 4, p.43 — our own page, so a child who was absent can still get the lesson.
You open by saying where this sits — what it follows and what it is part of — in one sentence, and then you give them the reason it matters, in your own words, for about ten seconds.
Then you do one yourself, building it on the board and leaving it up: Teacher reads a paragraph aloud with the text visible, and outlines it while thinking aloud about what is subordinate to what. The board copy is what they look back at when they stall, so it stays there for the whole lesson.
The We-do is the main whiteboard moment of the lesson — short answers, boards up on your signal, every child visible at once. Class outlines a second paragraph together, deciding levels by discussion. If the answer is a whole sentence rather than a word, take it on their notebooks instead, because a sentence written on a whiteboard is written once and destroyed.
They open Writing Book 4 to page 43 and read it with you. Stop at the worked example and let them look at it.
Exit directions in full, standing still, before anyone moves. Then they work alone: Outline one paragraph independently, three levels, margin words.
You close on the exit direction — Show the line you were least sure about. — taken from every child before anyone stands, and then the line you want them to still have tomorrow: Notes from a page, not from a voice.
A note longer than the sentence it came from is a copy. Set a word limit if needed.