Venus CO #5

Date: Thursday, May 15th

Topic/Skill: Composition (Advanced Group 4); note-taking strategies and summary writing using Cornell notes

Teacher presentation:
The class centered around teaching students how to take structured notes and summarize an academic article effectively. The professor began with a detailed walkthrough of the expectations for Cornell notes—covering how to format the page, what kinds of notes to take, and how much detail to include. Before diving into the article itself, the professor initiated a discussion about its themes and invited students to connect the material to their personal experiences.

As the class read through the article together (with students taking turns as readers), the professor paused at strategic moments to interject with explanations, reflections, and context. When more complex vocabulary or abstract phrases came up, she offered definitions and examples. These interruptions were purposeful and used to model how students might identify key ideas or support their understanding of difficult content.

The concept of summary writing was introduced through questions, prompting student input rather than just lecture. Once the article had been read and discussed, the instructor transitioned the class into independent work time, where students began writing their own summaries and taking notes using the Cornell format.

Classroom management:
The lesson was well-structured, beginning with clear expectations and gradually handing over responsibility to students. The professor maintained engagement during reading by inviting questions and making spontaneous but relevant connections. Her pacing and balance between instruction and independent time gave the session a strong flow.

Materials:
Article handout, Cornell notes template (digital)

Student participation:
Students read aloud, responded to the instructor’s comprehension and summary-building questions, and eventually worked independently on their summaries and notes. Their participation reflected both active listening and a growing ability to engage critically with academic content.

Feedback provided:
Real-time feedback was embedded throughout the reading portion of the lesson, especially around vocabulary and theme comprehension. The teacher also modeled summary thinking by posing questions that required synthesis, guiding students toward a deeper grasp of the article’s message.

Lessons on teaching I learned:

  • Scaffolding note-taking methods like Cornell notes can improve student confidence and organization.

  • Building in personal connections makes academic texts more accessible and relatable.

  • Reading with students (rather than assigning silently) opens the door for immediate clarification and discussion.

  • Definitions of challenging vocabulary need to be part of the reading process—not an afterthought.

  • Using questions to teach summary writing encourages student voice and critical thinking.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

McKenna TS #11

Date: 6/26/25 Location: Online  Topic: Debating (AI) Feedback Provided: I mostly gave my tutee feedback about sound pronunciation, especially for “v” and “w” and “th” and “sh” sounds. I taught her about minimal pairs because she tends to mix those pairs up with each other. We also  Lessons Learned: In this lesson I learned a lot about the difficulties of teaching over a computer. I think one of my strengths that I’ve noticed in these lessons is my ability to teach pronunciation, but I didn’t realize how much easier it is when you are face to face with a student and they can see the way your mouth moves. This lesson taught me to get better at explaining how to position one’s mouth and tongue for certain sounds. It also taught me that it’s more helpful to say the word slowly to myself first in order to understand the mouth positioning, rather than just repeating it slowly over and over again. 
Read more

McKenna TS #13

 Date: 7/3 Location: Online Topic: Job Interviews/Professionalism Feedback Provided: I gave my tutee feedback on how to structure her answers to typical interview questions. For example, when asked about what her greatest weakness is, I told her to give an honest answer but to make sure it’s something that she can then explain how she’s working on it or how it makes her a better worker. We also talked about how it’s okay to keep some answers more short and sweet (such as the one about weaknesses), while going more in depth about others (such as the ones asking about why you’re the most qualified candidate). Lessons Learned: In this activity, I provided a lot more linguistic support. I gave her answer structures and example answers prior to her answering the questions, which I think helped guide me in giving better feedback and also helped her understand her answers and the questions a lot better. I also learned how important it is to pay attention to my own speech in these lessons....
Read more

McKenna TS #14

Date: 7/7 Location: Online  Topic: Reading Comprehension and “th” Sound Pronunciation Feedback Provided: I had my tutee read a story that used a lot of “th” sounds in it and gave her feedback whenever she messed those up. She often would say it as a “sh” sound instead, so we went over the differences in mouth movements in each of those sounds. Lessons Learned: In my previous lessons with other tutees, I learned that it’s hard to produce pronunciation mistakes when a student is reading directly from a page. I tried to prevent that this time by having her read it out loud a few times and then reciting it to me as best as she could. While this did work better, I did learn that it’s probably best to have them memorize something before hand and then say it to me, as she missed many of the key words that I was looking for. I did, however, learn that this is a great way to test comprehension. I was able to see things she missed and placed where she got characters/topics confused with anot...
Read more