There are versions of CAP Notes for Students, Parents, Players and Teachers. Each resource has a defined purpose - Teachers' Lesson Plan; Students summarize lessons, and Parents and Players capture their learning as they draft Questions and Activities for the WAY Game. CAP Notes are a good place to put your learning so it doesn't get lost!
Focus Questions
1. Learn how CAP Notes work.
Outcome - Capture your life and learning.
Steps
Print a free CAP Note Below.
Watch the Video and study the CAP Notes page.
Use a sample CAP Note sheet to summarize this lesson.
Print your CAP Note Game Card and add it to your collection.
Motivating / Preparing Students to Learn - Morning Pep Talk Routine
Put away your stuff, turn phones off, get out CAP Notes, and have one minute of silence for others in need.
Student-led CAP Note review of yesterday's work. Two Students. Lead Pep Talk with a quote or story. Focus on Positive Outcomes. Then, to work.
Have a five-minute CAP Note Summary to conclude each lesson.
4 Tools for 4 Types of Players
Learn to use CAP Notes to plan lessons digitally. Align Learning Tools {CAP Notes} with Students and Parents. Work as a Team to create and populate Lesson Plan Banks. One District-wide PD day is a practical way to proceed.
Summarize day lessons - turn them into seven WAY Games. Each note is a mini-report card of your lessons. The Expectation for Teachers and Parents is that Students engage in their lessons. Be able to answer the question, "What did you learn in school today?"
Bond and schedule Game Prep Time with school-aged kids. Use CAP Notes for your own learning. Learn to make and share Game Cards. Support teachers. Be a WAY Game Volunteer - make resources and monitor games.
Out of school but want to play. Learn how CAP Notes work. Collect some Game Cards, then create some for your first game; invite players to play live or online. All you need to play is at playway.ca - free. I'll dedicate a full Blog Post for Players later.
13:42
Player Edition Student Edition [3 Terms]. Parent Edition [3 Terms
My First CAP Note Drafts from Amazon on the kitchen table.
Free Student CAP Note Sample - Sorry, no Parent or Player's version. No Graphics.
CAP Note Sample
CAP Note Game Card [Front]
The WAY Game on PowerPoint
The WAY Game on SMART Notebook
Teacher Stories
CAP Note Graphic Organizers have evolved like any good learning technology. Born out of 'Top Secret' Russian in a book called SuperLearning by Ostrander and Schroeder, this learning project helped soldiers learn fifty percent faster - with all the spin-off benefits; at least, that was the claim. This was back in 1982 as I was starting my teaching career; I was looking for those 'Tricks of the Trade' I tried to get from the professors at McGill. I borrowed ideas such as chucking information and how rhythm can assist in the learning process.
This was when standardized testing became popular, and teaching to the test was the norm. I needed a rote memory tool to get my students good grades on test scores; that is how the government and public would measure teachers. Never mind the projects, coaching and other extracurricular activities we did.
What if we could stimulate more areas of the brain to improve recall? What if students associated graphics with words? What if you arranged your study notes in bite-sized chunks? It continued until we were left with modern-day CAP Notes, complete with Games and Graphics and bound Learning Journals. We have come a long way since there were WAP Notes. Check out the evolution of CAP Notes under the CAP Note Tab.
I used to print CAP Notes for my students, which was a pain considering the time and expense. I would have asked a parent to do so, but teachers can be martyrs for the cause, or at least I was. Eventually, school volunteers could use the production and distribution of CAP Notes as a school fundraiser, but I'm getting way ahead of myself.
A few years ago, I was in a local establishment after a volleyball game with my team when a number of former students came in and started a conversation. They were from the school where I quit teaching. They were not my favourite students, but the only thing they brought up related to school was CAP Notes, which they made fun of at the time. Funny the things you remember.
The CAP Notes you see before you have evolved to include a version for Parents and Players - graphics were also added. The idea is for parents to sit down with their kids each night and review together the best learning of their day. Good things happen when parents model Best Learning Practices with students. A Player's version was made for when players get out of school; why not cover all the bases?
Coil bindings were experimented with but soon dismissed because a handful of students in every class would have that coil removed from the CAP Notes and transformed into a fascinating toy in no time.
Late in my teaching career, I experimented with CAP Notes to plan my lessons; aligning myself with a standardized note-taking resource with my students was a good idea. I planned lessons using CAP Notes, and students were asked to summarize the lesson. I modelled this process for weeks with my students until they got the hang of the nine-student summary process offered. My students never benefited from a bound journal, website support or training videos. They also had to use Microsoft Word for their Game Cards because I never considered PowerPoint at the time—a big mistake. Graphics tended not to stay where you put them. There are Game Card training videos on WORD and Apple Pages, but I now recommend PowerPoint for creating Game Cards, which are the end product of CAP Notes.
What's Next
Day 7 Introducing Game Cards for the WAY Game - Works of Art and Science.