Taking Notes:
Trash or Treasure
Imagine You’re a Pirate !
• Doing research is similar to searching for buried
treasure.
• Your treasure chest will be filled with answers to your
research questions!
• A pirate has a map…one that shows him where to
look for buried treasure.
Your Map:
Steps in the Research Process
Your researcher’s treasure map
includes these directions:
• Determine your information
needs
• Develop a plan of information
seeking strategies
• Gather your information
• Use your information
• Think and apply information
• Evaluate how well you followed
the research process
• Evaluate your research product
Finding the Treasure
• When a pirate discovers the
spot where he thinks the
treasure is buried…he digs!
• As he digs, he finds lots of
trash -- sand, dirt, weeds,
rocks, shells, and pieces of
driftwood.
• He tosses aside all of this
trash until he finds the
treasure for which he has
been searching.
When he hits something solid,
he hopes it’s
a chest filled with riches!
Finding Your Treasure!
When you discover the spot where you think your
treasure is buried…
…you will have to dig too!
• Along the way, you too may
find lots of trash – facts and
information that does not
help you with your
research.
• Toss aside all of the trash
until you finally find the
treasure – answers to the
questions for which you’ve
been searching.
What trash do you toss aside?
Examples of “information trash”:
• Facts that may be interesting but do not answer your
research questions
• Confusing information
• Information that contains mistakes
• Information that has spelling errors
• Information that is not up-to-date
• Information not from a reliable source
• Unnecessary words and phrases
Identify Information You Need!
1.
Write questions to guide your research.
2.
Identify keywords and related words that signal the
information relates to your topic.
3.
Transfer the words to data sheets, graphic organizers
or note cards.
4.
Skim quickly through paragraphs looking for main
ideas and supporting details.
5.
Scan for the keywords that indicate information about
your topic is included.
Trash or Treasure?
1.
Read the first sentence of your passage.
2.
Ask, “Does this sentence answer any of your research
questions?”
3.
If the answer is no, this sentence is trash to you.
4.
Put it in the Pirate’s trash can!
Trash or Treasure ?
1. If the answer is yes, then the sentence does answer a
research question.
2. Read that sentence word-by-word, asking which of the
words are needed to answer the question.
3. These words are the treasure!
4. Record them on your data sheet, graphic organizer or
note cards.
5. Any words not needed are trash.
6. Repeat this process until the section is finished.
Works Cited Page
Jansen, Barbara A. “Reading for Information: The Trash
–N –Treasure Method of Taking Notes.” School
Library Media Activities Monthly, February 1996: pp.
29-32.
Jansen, Barbara A. “Taking Notes: It’s Not Rocket
Science.” The Big6. Updated October, 2006. Big6
Associates. 9 Nov 2006. http://www.big6.com