Use graphic organizers for note-taking, too!

Your child has likely been introduced to graphic organizers (a visual/graphic display of relationships between facts, terms or ideas — think: Venn Diagram) as a pre-writing strategy. What your child may not know is that graphic organizers are great tools for note-taking, too! Have your child try out a “cause and effect” graphic organizer when he’s studying the root causes of the Civil War. Or, have him track main characters in his English novel in a “web” graphic organizer that shows the various connections between them. Graphic organizers are simply a collection of circles, lines and squares, but, when arranged properly, they can transform your child’s notes and ideas into something considerably more meaningful and useful.