ChapterNotes

Parents and teachers: See note on standards at bottom of this document.

Why am I doing this?

Do you realize why you take notes in class or the teacher asks you to summarize what you are reading? As teachers we're taught that there are different ways of knowing something. When you are reading, you can sound out letters and say words. Or, in computer books you can follow steps and create a document. But did you really learn what the text was saying? One of the ways to improve your learning is to be able to summarize what you are reading. This is the purpose of the ChapterNotes assignment. I don't want you to spend a long time with the summary, just give me a couple words and where you found the information. So if the section in the book talks about saving a file, all I need you to type are the menu and submenu name -- File, Save. Your ability to take a large chunk of text or lecture and summarize it with a few words is an important skill that will help you learn new things for your entire life.

Documenting your research is another important skill. If you need to go back and lookup information or if you need to put in footnotes for a paper, you'll need to write down where you learned something. Therefore, I'm asking for you to put the page number in the book. Finally, knowing when you applied your learning to the document you create is another way of demonstrating your knowledge. That is why I'm asking for you to describe to me when you actually did the steps for a procedure in your own document.

Preparation for College and the Work Learning

While I'm trying to simulate the work world by giving you a large number of tasks to complete and introducing you to project management through your Goals&Effort workbook, the main purpose of the ChapterNotes document is to help your scholarship. By completing your ChapterNotes, you will cement your learning, have a document you can use to study for your tests, and have a document you can use for assignments or other work you do.

I create a document very similar to ChapterNotes when I'm writing books. People often copy these pages or we create tear out cards and call them "cheat sheets." Even though ChapterNotes at times can be tedious, this is one of the things I did for many of my classes from high school, college, graduate school, and teacher education and it helped me with my learning. In fact, if you want to practice this for other classes, I would add a picture element. In addition to words, try to draw an image of what you're learning. That will help you even more. If you draw pictures or animations, you'll only have to do 5 notes per chapter, whereas if you do text, you'll do 10 notes per chapter.

Instructions (Finally)

You can create ChapterNotes in any application you wish -- Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, Flash. Whatever program you choose make sure you name it ChapterNotes and Save it into your class folder. OR USE THE DOCUMENT THAT I CREATED FOR OFFICE 1, OFFICE 2, HTML, FLASH, AND DREAMWEAVER. (All other classes must create their own.)

 
  1. Create a new file in any application you want. Name it ChapterNotes and save into the base "Your Class" folder. You'll need to have three parts for each objective or question.
    1.  Objective or Question. For example, Save a File or How do you save a file?
    2. Answer to question or objective or steps to accomplish the task. For example, File, Save.
    3. What page or place did you do this in the document. For example, WD-3.
  2. Do the following for each chapter:
    1. 10 text objectives or questions

    3.  

  3. To find your objectives or questions, choose the 10 items in your chapter that you think are the most important. For the Office and HTML books, half of the work is done for you at the end of the chapter. There is a list of objectives and the page numbers. If you created columns, you could type the objectives in the first column and the page number in the third column. You could also download the old objectives document and pick out the 10 objectives/questions you want to answer. Delete the parts of the document that do not pertain to your class:
 
  1. For Office 1:
    1. Word 1-3 (book 1)
    2. Excel 1-3 (book 1)
    3. PowerPoint 1-4 (books 1 & 2)
    For Office 2:
    1. Word 4-6 (book 2)
    2. Access 1-3 (book 1)
    3. Excel 4-6 (book 2)
  2. Internet -- Chapters 1-9
  3. Flash -- Chapters 1-9
  4. Dreamweaver -- Chapters 1-9
  5. Flash 2 - Do on your own for all Chapters
  6. GameFlash - Do on your own for Chapters 3-13

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Come back to this location when you are reading your first chapter.

What you'll do when you are working in the ChapterNotes file -- while you are going through each chapter.

Below is an example in Word. If you are doing another application, you still need to have the same information.

  1. Type the objectives or questions in the first column (5 points)
  2. In the second column (10 points), do one of the following:
    1. Type keywords of steps you do such as menu items (File, Save), name of toolbar button (Save button), or keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+S or F12). Do not type word for word what is in the chapter.
    2. Type an explanation if required (for objectives that ask you to describe or explain).
  3. In the third column (10 points), type where you did this for the Project or the first document in the chapter. Alternately, you can type the page number where this item is covered in your chapter.  Do not mention documents you created for Apply Your Knowledge or Lab 1. You must be very specific. If you are not specific within this column, you will lose up to 10 points. Include one of the following:
    1. Specific text you typed.
    2. A location such as a cell in Excel.
    3. The name of the object or the text in Access.
    4. The name of the Web page in Internet and Dreamweaver and the location on the page (top, line 5, or text)
    5. If the first column is not a step, type the page number where the description is.
    6. The location on the layer and part of the screen (upper left, center, etc) in Flash.
  4. Don't forget to save

Here is what an example of ChapterNotes for a chapter looks like:

Word Project 1 – Creating and Editing a Word Document

Objective

Keyboard shortcut

Or Menu, Submenu(s)

Or Toolbar button

Or explanation or other steps

Where in project (first document in chapter)

Or page number in book

Type text or put cell or other location.

Describe the Word window (Example of explanation)

The Word window has a blue title bar at the top, a menu that starts with File and ends with Help, buttons that start with New Document, a blank white area where you type, buttons on the bottom to change the view of the page, and a status bar.

Type only the page number or locations

WD1.12

Change the default font size of all text (Example of toolbar button)

Font Size button before you start

Or

Ctrl+A, Font Size button

Font size changed to 22 at beginning of document (WD1.19)

Enter text into a document (Example of keys to press)

Type letters, numbers, Backspace when you type the wrong character.

Sail the Waters~ (WD1.21)

 

Game Flash 3 – Whack a Capsule

horizontal rule

Standard Notes for ChapterNotes Assignment

English

Students can use my form to summarize technical information.
 

Colorado Standard 1) Students read and understand a variety of materials.

    Colorado Basic Literacy Act (CBLA) 9th grade proficiency: b) Summarize, synthesize, and evaluate information from a variety of text and genre (for example... technical text)

    Colorado Basic Literacy Act (CBLA) 12th grade proficiency: e) Summarize, synthesize, and evaluate ... technical texts.

 

Colorado Standard 5) Students read to locate, select, and make use of relevant information from a variety of media, references, and technological sources

    Colorado Basic Literacy Act (CBLA) 9th grade proficiency: b) Summarize and organize information about a topic in a variety of ways (for example, graphic organizer ...) from references, technical sources, and media

    Colorado Basic Literacy Act (CBLA) 12th grade proficiency: c) Paraphrase, summarize, organize and synthesize information from a variety of sources.

 

Technology

Students can demonstrate to me that they know at least one way to perform a procedure within an application.
 

National Educational Technology Standards for Students (NETS) - http://cnets.iste.org/students/s_stands.html

NETS Standard 1. Basic operations and concepts: Students demonstrate a sound understanding of the nature and operation of technology systems;    Students are proficient in the use of technology.

 

NET Standard 3. Technology productivity tools: Students use technology tools to enhance learning...

 

Bloom's Taxonomy

Knowledge (define, fill in the blank)

Comprehension (paraphrase, summarize, restate, put in own words)