Social Studies Strategy

The two-column note taking strategy is a simple chart in which the student creates two columns with headings as the teacher directs. The student organizes the lesson material. This could be text pages, newspaper articles, novels, notes, etc.

I use this often to organize large amounts of information. It allows students to control or get a handle on information that might otherwise overwhelm them. For example, our current unit requires students to look at the similarities and differences in the physical and cultural geography of the U.S. and Canada. I ask students to make a chart with similarities on one side and differences on the other. As they take notes students mark their notes with an S or D. At the end of the unit, students fill in this chart with the appropriate information. This strategy helps students dig deeper into why the U.S. and Canada are in a region together.

The two-column note taking strategy is a favorite of mine because the manipulations are endless, it require low output from the teacher and higher output from the student, requires minimum planning and is a strategy used as part of various professional learning activities. With all of this, one might ask if this strategy pays off in terms of student achievement. I believe that it does. Students want to feel as if they are not having to memorize information because that is an overwhelming task. When they take ownership of the material they know it and therefore have less rote memorization. Fun alternatives include filling in the chart together on the board. This strategy is simple and an example of how strategies for content and critical literacy can easily be used to learn standards and increase student literacy.