Thoughts on student note-taking

[science_monkey]

What are your thoughts on student note-taking?

I have seen a divide in students who have excellent note-taking skills vs. those who seemingly cannot take notes at all.

With content-heavy material, do you find it more important to keep things moving and provide pre-made notes for the students, or slow things down and have them take notes on their own? Or, as a compromise, do you find "skeleton" (fill in the blank) notes helpful?

By the way, my realm is high school sciences, but I'm interested in your opinions regarding all subjects/academic levels.

[Chef Dave]

We just had this discussion at a recent high school faculty meeting.

We can't assume that students know how to take notes. Some do. Some don't.

Some think that literally writing the entire passage of a text word for word is "note taking." Others look at their teachers blankly and ask, "Do I need paper for this?"

As a former elementary teacher, I have worked in schools that taught note taking beginning in the 4th grade ... but this is by no means consistent from school to school or even district to district.

NCLB has also killed a lot of incentive to teach things that aren't actually tested. This is especially true in states like Texas where the teach to the test mentality has run hog wild.

[science_monkey]

We can't assume that students know how to take notes. Some do. Some don't.

Some think that literally writing the entire passage of a text word for word is "note taking." Others look at their teachers blankly and ask, "Do I need paper for this?"


Point well taken, Chef Dave. I ran into this the other day in my foundations-level general biology class (10th grade). I was under the assumption that they knew had good note-taking skills by this point. I was wrong.

I had them take notes on the events that occur in each stage of mitosis, and about have the students had no problem, but the other half fit your description of the "some don't" perfectly. They took what seemed like forever to copy (like you said, word for word) the text, and seemingly had no concept of picking out key points, paraphrasing, summarizing, etc. It slowed the class down immensely, and many of the students who are proficient in note-taking simply sat there waiting for the others to finish, glaring at them in irritation.

I'm thinking in hindsight that skeleton notes would have been better for this group of kids, so I'll keep that under consideration for next time.

[mopar]

I use a lot of skeleton (cloze) notes with my students. It is very helpful with students with learning disabilities. I also use a lot of two column notes and help the students to create questions for the chapter. Then I have them work to find the answers. Using SQ3R is great for this. Also, working with other students might help some of the better note takers teach their strategies.

I think that it is important to slow down and teach how to take notes; however, I would not do this every week. Maybe use one or two days a month on note taking-if that much. Or spend a week working on note taking and then expect the students to take notes.

Also, giving students a partially completed outline is helpful. They are better at finding the pieces to plug in than simply making their own notes.

At the very least, most students should write the notes themselves. If they are given a copy, many students will never even look at it. So unless the student needs you to copy the notes, try not to just hand them a copy.

[Missmaggie]

I like the idea of using an outline. Those were always my favorite classes as a student because it kept me organized in college.

I agree with these posts but I have a learning disability and since no one really "taught" me how to take notes in high school, I had a really tough time in college. Especially in science, because my Bio teacher never stopped to answer questions and I was drowning in her class. Even if she did stop, I couldn't ask her to explain the whole thing all over again.

I had another teacher in high school who was very cool though. He would explain US History aloud like it really was just a story he was telling us, and meanwhile he would stick in certain things he would dictate slowly for us so our notes were only what we needed for the test. We only used the text for homework.

Then I went to Penn State, the Land of Professors Who Don't Care. I would forget the chapter I had read for class and then I would get there and write down every little thing the professor said (even though she had pre-written notes for the projector...forget what they are called).

I soon realized that not everything is important enough to take down, but I was so pressured to do well on my exams, I felt I needed every little bit of information I could get. Eventually I borrowed notes from friends or used a tape recorder.

[Boxcar]

Preschoolers can't write, so note-taking really isn't an issue. That is why I said I don't do notes.

For the upper grades, I think skeleton notes are good as a start. I'd also have them work with me in the beginning to do notes together. I'd ask them to come up with one or two sentances that sum up each slide or paragraph. I'd also tell them if they see a vocabulary word it is to be down on the paper.

I'd include little reminders in my lessons to help them. For example, if I want them to remember what a vocabulary word is I'd say "This is called ____. ______ is the study of rocks. This is a very important term to know."

[mopar]

I think it is important to start working on note taking at the earliest ages too. That way when they get to high school, they have some concept of how to take notes. Maybe not preschoolers-Boxcar but maybe they could start. I know that some teachers have their students make an alphabet book. They write the letter, draw a picture and write the key word. That is note taking at the early ages.

Maybe if you know that you will have a sub one day, note taking would be a great activity. Teach your kids how to take notes and then have them take notes when you are out. Have the sub collect notes so that you can do a quick check to see what the students used their time for. Then, whenever you are sick, the students could take notes instead of the traditional movie or book work.

[Boxcar]

I never thought of the little books the kids make on the ABCs, All About Me, and the colors as taking notes. That is a neat way to look at it.

[teach1027]

I feel that it is important for the student to take their ownnotes. Everyone has a different learning style, so they should take notes in their own way to fit thrie style. If some of them need or want a printout, have it available for them If you have students that like the skeleton format, then use that as well. The purpose of notes is to help the student study, so they shoul be in a format that helps the student, and who better to know what that is than the student themselves. You as a teacher should provide the potopns and let them chose the one that is best for them in their eyes.

[Boxcar]

I think, that once the students have learned the different ways to take notes, they should certainly be allowed to pick what is best for them.

I hardly ever took notes in elementry or high school. I found that it was more of a distraction than a help for me. I preferred to listen to the teacher and participate in class discussions. This helped me remember things more than any amount of notes would have.

So, I agree that it is a good idea to let the students decide what works best for them.