What it is. A denser text is noted at paragraph size, not sentence size.
Why our test works. A dense text defeats note-taking by making every sentence look essential, so the child copies. Forcing the note up to PURPOSE — what the paragraph was for — is the only reduction that works, because it is a question a paragraph has exactly one answer to, however many facts it contains. This is also the note-taking that Grade 8's synthesis depends on.
Leans on. Grade 6 took notes at reading speed on ordinary text.
Watch for. More than one line per paragraph means they are still noting content. Hold the limit — it is the whole exercise.
Take hierarchical notes from an argument rather than a description. The worked example is the one you build on the board: Teacher models notes on a short argument, showing how claim and support map to levels. The class reads Writing Book 7, 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 notes on a short argument, showing how claim and support map to levels. 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 places claim and support at the right levels together. 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 7 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 short argument, three levels, margin questions.
You close on the exit direction — Read out the line you marked as the claim. — taken from every child before anyone stands, and then the line you want them to still have tomorrow: One line per paragraph, however dense the paragraph is.
More than one line per paragraph means they are still noting content. Hold the limit — it is the whole exercise.