Enhance Your Students’ Note-Taking Skills

Middle school teachers across the country unanimously agree that many of the students entering upper grades struggle greatly with the concept of note-taking. They’re unsure of what they should write down, their handwriting and organization are off, or they’re just not motivated to take notes without a goal in mind. We’ve put together a way for you to help bridge the gap between elementary and middle school with a Civil War Doodle Notes template.

Printable Activities for the Civil War

This note-taking template provides students with an organized and graphically pleasing way to take notes on the Civil War.  This note-taking template provides the learner with space to note the following concepts.

• Who fought in the Civil War, and who led each side
• When and where the major battles of the Civil War occurred
• Why the Civil War began
• How the Civil War ended

Tips for Differentiation + Scaffolding 

In addition to independent student work time, use this worksheet as an activity for:

• Cross-Curricular reading groups 
• Lesson warm-up
• Lesson wrap-up
• Fast finishers 
• Homework assignment
• Whole-class review (via smartboard)

To challenge your accelerated students,

• Provide your students with a completed note sheet, and have them use the content to create a Civil War anchor chart or poster for the classroom.
• Provide your students with trade books and other informational reading materials to use in the classroom.

To help your struggling readers,

• Complete the activity in a small group or 1:1 learning session.
• Provide your students with differentiated reading materials to reference while completing their notes project.
• Provide students with an anchor chart, poster, or other Civil War resources to reference during the activity.

Easily Download & Print

Use the dropdown icon on the Download button to choose between the PDF or Google Slides version of this resource. 

Additionally, project the template onto a screen and work through it as a class by having students record their answers in their notebooks.

This resource was created by Ali Endlich, a teacher in South Carolina and Teach Starter Collaborator.