What it is. Usable notes from a text read once, at the speed it is actually read.
Why our test works. Every failed note-taker fails the same way: they write while their eyes are still moving, which is copying, not noting. The test catches the behavior rather than the product — a child can see whether their pen was moving during the paragraph, and cannot easily see that their notes are a paraphrase. This matters now because Grade 6 reads more than it can copy.
Leans on. Grade 5 took notes from a text with time to spare.
Watch for. A child who has finished writing before the paragraph is over has copied. Check the pen, not the page.
Take hierarchical notes while reading, without pausing to format. The worked example is the one you build on the board: Teacher models note-taking while reading continuously. The class reads Writing Book 6, p.41 — 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 models note-taking while reading continuously. 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 takes notes on a paragraph read once only. 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 6 to page 41 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: Take notes on a passage read once. Add margin questions after.
You close on the exit direction — Name one thing you had to leave out. — taken from every child before anyone stands, and then the line you want them to still have tomorrow: Pen down for the paragraph. One line at the end of it.
A child who has finished writing before the paragraph is over has copied. Check the pen, not the page.