KEY WORDS Practice Sheet

KEY WORDS

If you have to take notes from something you have already studied, then only using key words is a good way to do this:  Saves time  Makes you think about what you are learning  Helps your understanding  Helps store information into your long-term memory Using key words involves: 1) Skim reading the passage to get a “feel” for it 2) Reading the passage again more closely 3) Underlining or highlighting the most important words 4) Writing out these words in a variety of ways

Look at this example. First we read the passage below very quickly to get an overall impression of the content:

The Life of Thomas Becket When Henry II became king in 1154 he chose Becket as chancellor. At this time there were two law courts – church courts for members of the clergy and royal courts for everyone else. In 1162 Henry II appointed Becket as Archbishop of Canterbury because he wanted him to help abolish the church courts. Soon after being appointed archbishop, Becket devoted himself to God and refused to abolish the church courts. Henry II was furious, and Becket fled abroad to live in France. Becket returned from exile in France in 1170, but angered Henry II when he threatened to sack the Archbishop of York. Four knights murdered Becket in Canterbury in December 1170. Pilgrims visited Becket’s tomb until it was destroyed in 1539. (taken from “GCSE success essentials – study skills” by Letts ISBN 1-84315-473-0)

As we now have the gist of the passage, we are able to pick out the important words on our second, more thorough, reading and highlight/underline them. 2

When Henry II became king in 1154 he chose Becket as chancellor. At this time there were two law courts – church courts for members of the clergy and royal courts for everyone else. In 1162 Henry II appointed Becket as Archbishop of Canterbury because he wanted him to help abolish the church courts. Soon after being appointed archbishop, Becket devoted himself to God and refused to abolish the church courts. Henry II was furious, and Becket fled abroad to live in France. Becket returned from exile in France in 1170, but angered Henry II when he threatened to sack the Archbishop of York. Four knights murdered Becket in Canterbury in December 1170. Pilgrims visited Becket’s tomb until it was destroyed in 1539.

Add bullet points!

Now we have the key words, we need to put them into some sort of order. Remember, your brain likes information which is presented in some sort of pattern or logical order and will remember such information more easily. First we group the words by topic, and list them using bullet points: The Life of Thomas Becket

HIS RISE TO POWER: THE KING’S ANGER: HIS DEATH:  Henry II  refused  murdered  king  fled  1170  1154  France  pilgrims  Beckett  returned  tomb  Chancellor  sack  courts  church  royal  1162  Archbishop 3

Colour it!

As the brain remembers facts more easily when they are in colour, you can make your key words even more effective by using colour:  Write your key words on coloured cards / paper  Write your key words out using different coloured pens  Highlight your key words with different coloured highlighters

Use different colours for different aspects of the topic. For example, in the Napoleon exercise, we could use black for Napoleon’s empire, dark grey for the collapse of the empire, and mid grey for his defeat (N.B. if the school had a colour photo-copier, this would be red, green and purple!)

HIS RISE TO POWER: THE KING’S ANGER: HIS DEATH:  Henry II  refused  murdered  king  fled  1170  1154  France  pilgrims  Beckett  returned  tomb  Chancellor  sack  courts  church  royal  1162  Archbishop

If you were writing these words separately on pieces of colour-coded paper/card, you could arrange them on the floor or on a table in a way that makes sense to you, and then turn them over to use as flash cards and test yourself.

Power it!

If you have easy access to a computer you could turn your notes into a PowerPoint presentation. Your teacher will show you an example. It’s easy to add colour and illustrations this way. Just remember to save your work carefully so you can find it again. Use file and folder names that will help you. 4

Summary Circle

Another way to write out your notes is to draw little diagrams to help you remember all key information, e.g. for King, £ for chancellor. The diagrams provide a pictorial summary of the information. Then arrange the diagrams into a segmented circle.

A SUMMARY CIRCLE ON THE LIFE OF THOMAS BECKET

(taken from “GCSE success essentials – study skills” by Letts)

RI H2 B P £ 1170 1154

1162 B ~. .

~. . X

Trivia Question – What is the link between this story and a famous Borders’ Abbey?

Try drawing your own summary circle by completing exercise 4 on page 9. 5

Map it!

Another way to arrange our key words is by using a mind map (also called a memory map, summary map or spider graph).

Henry II Becket church royal king archbishop

1154 courts 1162

Becket chancellor

Rise to Power

The Life of Thomas Becket

The King’s His Death Anger

refused abolish 1170 fled murdered France

returned pilgrims sack tomb