HOW TO TAKE NOTESWhy do we take notes?1.Reference/tool to study for test.2.Organize the reading to help us understand the material.

Before you start reading the text, you should do a few things:1.Look at the “Main Idea, Why It Matters Now, and Terms and Names.”

2. Look at the section names: look for patterns, sequence, and/or main idea.

Main Idea: Lets you know what the focus of the reading is. Notice that the title is: “The Louisiana Purchase and Exploration” and the Main Idea is: “Jefferson purchased the Louisiana Territory in 1803 and doubled the size of the United States.”

So before we even start reading, what have we already learned?That the U.S. doubled it’s size by purchasing the Louisiana Territory.

Now as you’re reading the text, what should you be looking for?Which events led up to the purchasing of the Louisiana Territory.Who did we purchase it from? Why would someone want to sell that territory? Why did we want to buy the territory?So similar to the Learning Goal, if the info. relates to the main idea, it’s important and you need to take notes on it!

But DON’T write down EVERYTHING! Figure out what’s important and summarize that. So for each paragraph you should have ONE sentence that summarizes the main idea of that paragraph!

P1: Sailors like Cpt. Gray were sailing around South America to trade in regions like Oregon Country.

Whenever a text talks about traveling and certain regions, it might be helpful for you to look at a map in order to better understand what the reading is talking about.

So by looking at a map, you can now get a better understand of the lengths that merchants had to go in order to trade.

Is there anything interesting about this fact?

P2: Through Gray’s explorations, the .U.S. was able to establish claims on the Pacific NW.

Notice that putting information in your own words isn’t just changing one or two words using a Thesaurus. It’s rewriting the entire sentence. The information is the same, and in this case almost the exact same words were used, but you can make a sentence your own by restructuring (reordering) it.

Don’t overlook or ignore the pictures or captions, they help explain the info!

Picture: An American boat, capable of sailing to the NW and China.

Ok, we’re not done yet with this subsection. What do we need to do? Write a question that you might have about this subsection.

Question: Why did merchants have to sail around South America, why couldn’t they just travel NW by land?

Make sure you read the ENTIRE section before you start taking notes.

What are the benefits of this:1.You can see the “big picture.” This will help you know what’s important and what you need to write down. Otherwise, you’re going to try and write down EVERYTHING, which is a BAD thing.

2. A lot of times the info. from one paragraph to another is connected, so if you start taking notes right away, you might miss that connection.

Always read the subsection title before you start. Refer back to this title when you’re trying to figure out what’s important. If it relates to the main idea and the subsection, it’s IMPORTANT!

P1: In 1800, Americans defined the West as the area between the Appalachian Mts. and the Mississippi Rv.

So you see how referring back to the subsection title helps you to see what’s important?

Instead of moving on, what should you do?That’s right, let’s look at the map so we can get an idea of what this area looks like! And when you can see it, it’ll be easier to remember it! (Look at the TOL pyramid)

So looking at the map helps us to see what the West looks like. Remember, during this time MOST Americans lived EAST of the Appalachian Mts., so for them anything over the mountains was “WEST.”

WEST

When you see words like “although, but, however” slow down because there’s going to information that different or even opposite of what you just read!

Some of you might not know what the word “negotiate” means, so what should you do?

P2: France and Spain were working on a deal to see who would own the Louisiana Territory, the land between the Mississippi Rv. And Rocky Mts.

So what do you do now? That’s right, let’s look at a map!

By looking at the map, you can see that the Louisiana Territory is about the same size as the U.S. in 1800. So that’s why buying the Louisiana Territory will double our size (remember the “Main Idea” of 10.2)!