By Pieces of Learning’s Staff Development Presenter  Dodie Merrit

      Spec Sheets – ready-to-use reproducibles - are another way of taking notes. Students complete them with specific details about a topic being studied. They are much like the spec sheets posted on the window of a new car. These “specs” help students organize data.

            Individual students can use them as they do research; when several students are collecting the same kind of information about a topic, completed sheets can be used to see how collected research is alike and different. 

Completed Spec Sheets provide the student with a format for neat and legible gathered information. Collected sheets may be bound into a resource book. Students can design a cover, write an introduction, and include their bibliographies so that future students can use them as an introduction to the research topic.

Example sheets include :  Science, Social Studies, and the Visual and Performing Arts. Topics include U.S. Presidents, the planets, animal species, the states, types of weather, types of castles, famous people, art movements, kinds of cameras, body systems, and more.

Spec Sheets are packaged as separate sheets for easy duplication. A CD includes all of the sheets in PDF format for on-demand printing.