Note taking
Thank you for the suggestions on how to teach students to take notes. I remember many of these from my education but had forgotten them. I think I will use structured note taking, not only to get them to take notes correctly, but also to get them to pay attention in class. Perhaps I will require the notes to be filled out and turned in.
I tell my students the same thing! I make sure my student have the proper and correct notes. I also tell the students to work together and compare notes.
Kelly,
I think your students are going to do really with with the lecture notes. You are giving them an additional resource to use so they can keep pace with the class and still be forward focused in their learning.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I am incredibly motivated to create lecture notes for the students to use to follow along with lecture. I teach a 3 hour pathology lecture that can be very long and dry. I try to break it up, switch gears, etc but there is so much information that needs to be communicated and discussed.
I like the idea of lecture notes! Thanks so much!
Claudia,
Glad to hear that you were able to add some additional strategies to your instructional skill sets through this lesson. This is one of the fun parts about our area. We get to be life long learners and constantly take in new information about our field and how to convey it to others.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I think teaching adult students who have been out of school for a while how to take notes is one of the most important things I can do for them. I got some new ideas about how to do that from this lesson.
Paul,
I would start by checking with the publisher of the text you use. The often have worksheets and guided notes that go along with the content of their book as well as the lectures that are given.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I like the idea of having a note packet that the students have to either fill in a word that matches a definition or maybe a matching section and perhaps others. I think it would make them pay attention better and not have to take their concentration away from what is being said as much. It is very difficult to listen to the newest information and writing down what is just said and concentrate on both. Did I write difficult? I mean impossible. Does anyone know of a site that will help with these types of notes? Any examples?
John,
It is amazing in terms of student success when students attend class, study, take notes and participate in class they do well. The students that don't put forth such effort are amazed when they don't do well. What part of this are they not getting?
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
you can tell during test time who takes notes and who does not. I like to make mention of the students who do well on quizes and test and how come they do so well...
Henry,
I agree about the organized students. The biggest problem I face is that the majority of my students don't know how to identify key concepts nor take notes. They need a guide to help them see what the critical course components are.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
This is very true. But the students that are organized with their note taking are the ones that tend to do best.
Margarita,
You make a number of very good points about note taking and the value of it. They need to learn how to listen/view content and then select the key concepts out of the material and record them in a way that will make sense to them later on.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
Note taking is very important. Student should not depend on their memory to record everything that is needed to learn. In my personal expierience, I would take notes during lectures and then I would type them up, this way I was able to process the information twice. Of course all students learn differently but if notes are not taken something important will be missed.
Carol,
You are using a number of different methods to get the students into the content and gaining the cognitive information that is required. The more you can do this and the more students will be engaged. Keep up the good work.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
I teach a textile science class. The best book for our course is also a little too long to be completely covered in our time frame, and has a great deal of chemistry illustrations in it that we don't cover. So I give them an outline of the key components, I want them to remember. They have to fill in the definintions, besides writing on the board or using the power points as I lecture. I also let them hand these notes in when we have a quiz for extra credit. I give them a point per chapter, not a great deal, but over the time of the course, adds enough, to equal about half the points of a regular quiz. What it facilitates, is not only getting the key terms, but the students that have their lecture notes filled out are usually the ones who do better on the quizes.
Kelly,
I am sure your students really appreciate your efforts in this area. Many students do no have effective note taking skills or have been out of school for a period of time. These kinds of supports help to get them back into the student mode.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
I encoarage my students to take good notes and give a little help on things they may need to no in the future. I also have a self study for my students to find the answers in there notes
The note taking also aids students in learning, as some students retain what they write better than other methods of learning.
I tell my students that I take my quizes and test questions and answers directly from my notes. That technique always works for me to get them to take notes from and I put a * by the really important/ possible test questions.
