Using Web Technology – Diigo
Subject: Library Media
Grade: 6 – 8
Introduction:
With the majority of research being done online today, it is important that students are exposed to and experiment with a variety of tools that allow them to take notes on digital webpages. One such tool is Diigo. It is a useful experience for students to become familiar with current, popular note-taking technologies like Diigo that enhance students’ technology literacy skills.
This lesson teaches students the basics of Diigo, as well as how to translate their note taking skills to an online platform. While it is a simple lesson in terms of teaching students the basics of using Diigo, it presents an alternative note taking method that is specific to online research so that students can better adapt to a web-based world.
Objective:
- Understand the importance of taking notes while researching online
- Identify the difference between taking notes on print sources and online sources
- Learn the basics of Diigo and how to use it to take notes online
- Develop a personal style for taking notes online
Materials:
- Computer with internet access
- Chrome with Diigo app
Procedure:
- Choose an online web page for students to take notes on. This web page should be comprehensive and at an appropriate reading level for the students.
- If you do not already have a Diigo account, sign up for a free at www.diigo.com. You should be using Chrome, which allows you to install the Diigo Chrome app. You can either set this up on every computer in your classroom/library lab, on iPads, or on a single computer for the students to share.
- Have students come in and take notes on the online web page using the Diigo tool. They can explore the highlighting and sticky notes features in any way they choose, as long as they thoroughly annotate the web page.
- After the students are done, use the “share” feature on Diigo to email all the notes to you with their name and class. This way, all the notes are ultimately sent to you for assessment.
Assessment:
The students’ notes should be assessed on quality and quantity. Better note taking skills will have a mixture of highlighting and sticky notes (not just an extreme amount of one or the other), as well as organization and categorizing in terms of different color highlighting. Sticky notes should not only be paraphrasing ideas, but also asking questions and adding their own ideas.
Self-Evaluation:
This simple lesson plan is not intended to evaluate students’ online note taking skills, but rather expose them to new tools that are available for their academic research. Instead, students should have explored Diigo as a new tool and begun to develop their own online note taking preferences through this lesson. The objectives outlined at the beginning of the lesson plan should have been achieved.
Extension:
Educators can extend this lesson to other note taking tools, like EasyBib’s Notebook. Students can use the highlighting and sticky notes tools to later transfer them over to EasyBib’s Notebook, by creating a new note for every highlighted portion of the text and then paraphrasing.
Additional Resources:
Common Core Standards:
| Common Core Standard | 8th Grade Expectation | How the lesson plan addresses this standard |
|---|---|---|
| Anchor Reading Standard 1. Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text. | CC.R.IT.8.1 Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. | Students will highlight portions of the text that they feel are important to their analysis (corresponding highlighted text with sticky notes.) |
| Anchor Reading Standard 2. Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas. | CC.R.IT.8.2 Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to supporting ideas; provide an objective summary of the text. | Students will identify main ideas in the text through highlighting, and how those main ideas develop over the course of the text. |
| Anchor Reading Standard 3. Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text. | CC.R.IT.8.3 Analyze how a text makes connections among and distinctions between individuals, ideas, or events (e.g., through comparisons, analogies, or categories) | Taking notes directly on an online source will allow students to make connections between ideas, especially through color-coded highlighting and sticky notes. |
| Anchor Reading Standard 10. Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently. | CC.R.IT.8.10 By the end of the year, read and comprehend literary nonfiction at the high end of the grades 6–8 text complexity band independently and proficiently | Diigo provides a new approach to reading difficult online texts for students. |
