Kelli Etheredge uses OneNote features like shared notebooks, linked notes, and screen clipping to engage her World Literature class in a poetry lesson. It's a 2-day unit where Kelli and her 10th grade students' read, analyze, and discuss haiku and tanka forms of Japanese poetry.

Kelli teaches at St. Paul's Episcopal School in Mobile, Alabama where every student has a laptop computer and a licensed copy of Microsoft OneNote. Working in teams of two, her students copy assigned poems into a shared OneNote notebook and then they analyze each poem to identify the mood, theme and imagery. Each team must also find two pictures that exemplify the poem. It's a quick and fun lesson that let's Kelli pique her students' curiosity in poetry and develops their critical thinking skills.

Here's an example of one team's OneNote page:

If you'd like to do something similar, I've included instructions for the OneNote features that Kelli uses in this lesson. 

Create a shared notebook for the class

There are several ways to share notebooks; read Share notebooks in OneNote 2010 for details.

  1. Open Microsoft OneNote.
  2. On the File menu, click New.
  3. Under Store Notebook On, click Network if you want to share the new notebook with other people on the same computer network or on your school's SharePoint site, if available.
  4. In the Name box, enter a descriptive title for the subject of the new notebook (for example, Haiku Project).
  5. In the Network Location field, you can enter the full path of a network file share, enter a mapped network drive, or paste the full address of a SharePoint document library where you want to create the shared notebook. You can also select a recently visited SharePoint location, if available.  Note that the notebook will be accessible to anybody who has permissions to this network location or SharePoint site.
  6. Click Create Notebook.

Start a linked notes session

When you start a linked notes session, a small OneNote window appears next to the Web page, Word document, PowerPoint presentation, or OneNote page that you are reading. This way you don't have to leave the Web page to take notes. For more information, read Take linked notes in OneNote 2010.

If you don't have OneNote 2010, don't worry. OneNote 2003 and later versions automatically insert a hyperlink whenever you type or paste a URL or screen clipping into your notes. You just won't have the convenience of OneNote docking to the side of what you're researching.

  1. On the Ribbon in OneNote, Word, or PowerPoint, click the Review tab.
  2. In the Notes group, click the Linked Notes button.
  3. In the Select Location in OneNote dialog box, navigate to the notebook, section, and page where you want to take notes about the document or page that you're looking at, and then click OK.
  4. Take notes as you normally would. You can view other OneNote pages in the main program windows, open in a browser windows, or open other Word or PowerPoint documents. OneNote automatically links back to what you were looking at, so you can easily refer to the source material later.

 

Create a screen clipping

If you want to copy an image and add it to your notes, using the OneNote taskbar icon is the fastest way to take a screen clipping. For instructions on additional options, read Use screen clippings to capture information quickly.

  1. Right-click the OneNote icon in the notification area of the taskbar.

2. On the shortcut menu, click Create Screen Clipping.

3. Drag the pointer in any direction to create a rectangular selection over the screen area that you want to capture. When you release the mouse button, OneNote captures your selection as a picture and inserts it into a new blank page in the Unfiled Notes section. You can move this page to any section in any of your open notebooks or paste the screen clipping to an existing page in your notes. 

     

    Want ideas about incorporating OneNote into your curriculum? Check out What's the verdict? Students put the Count of Monte Cristo on trial (video).

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