Bath Board Notes!

Students often lack the basic skills needed to be successful in a classroom environment. Something as rudimentary as note taking requires a student to be able to discriminate what is most important in a lesson, classify information, and transfer it in an organized manner. By using 8'x 4' sheets of plain bathboard cut in half, students can work in groups of two to four taking notes in each of the corners. After the teacher has presented the lesson, students then pool their notes in the center of the board. They work collaboratively to discriminate, classify, and organize their notes. After the students have developed a group set of notes, they can then transfer them into their individual notebooks. Fenger High School part of the Chicago Public School System, and is located in an underserved urban environment where basic skills for access to education are greatly lacking. I teach Biology to primarily freshmen, many of whom fall within the realm of Special Education. Basic supplies are not funded, and many of the students do not have the resources with which to purchase school supplies. The materials needed for this project include the following: 1. 15 sheets of 8' x 4' plain white, smooth 1/4 inch "bath board" found at home supply stores such as Home Depot. (cut in half to make 30 boards total) 2. 30 packages of dry erase markers in various colors. 3. 300 single subject lined spiral notebooks. 4. 150 black ball point pens. These materials will suffice to serve 150 students for two semesters of Biology throughout the 2005 - 2006 school year. This project would give students an ongoing opportunity to develop and refine basic to advanced note taking skills. Visual and kinestetic learners would benefit as manipulatives, colors, and large scale modeling are used daily. Note taking skills are necessary for success in education, and I would love the opportunity to implement this project in my classroom this fall.