Using OneNote in cross-curricular contexts - Geography example from Birch Cliff Public School

One of the key goals of the A.T. team's OneNote pilot in classrooms throughout the TDSB is to support the organization skills and transitions of intermediate students. Through the project-based learning, students are learning the tools and skills to use OneNote for a research project to create a digital poster "My Favourite..." The success and engagement in using the tools translates to other subject areas at many schools. At Birch Cliff Public School, students in the intermediate ASD program, use their tablets throughout the day in all learning contexts.

Their teacher, Laura Butler, chose one of her student's Geography assignments to share as a demonstration of the possibilities of student achievement from her classroom.

(left) The Population Factor goals and success criteria for the Geography session. (right) the SQ3R non-fiction

reading strategy with Read and Write Gold tools embedded.

"This work sample was produced by a student who independently used the SQ3R strategy visual, Read and Write text-to-speech, and OneNote's question tags and tag finder, and drawing tools to read and take notes on his geography reading," said Ms. Butler. "As the student previewed the text, he created question tags to answer later as he read the text. He collected the tags and made a summary page of them, where he then made his notes from the reading."

After capturing a page of the textbook using HP Page lift, the student highlights key facts and adds question tags.

The student added tags on a number of his pages. He then used the OneNote feature "Collect tags" to create a page summary of all of his questions - with answers from the text.

"So far, the student has been reluctant to use his tablet, and he generally has a hard time focusing, working independently, and completing tasks. However, the student remained focused for the entire period, worked with total independence, and after completing the task reported that using the tablet had made his work much easier! Success!"