Readings vs. Notes

Hi Michal Antonov and welcome to the community! I completely get the struggle of what works best for student note-taking. My biggest question to you is what are you trying to have them get out of it? What I've done is given them a very standard outline broken down by subsections in the article. For each sub section, I have a certain number of required notes I want them to write which depends on the content in that section. I start off with doing this with them a handful of times, then have them transition to independent practice of this same skill. I'll randomly collect them to see how they're progressing and if I notice students still struggling with this, I'll make sure to do the next one with them so they get back on track. Does this make sense? Hope it helps!

Hi Michal Antonov ! I also have a lot of students who struggle with reading comprehension and stamina. 

Adjusting the Lexile level and making use of the audio version is often helpful. Do your students use these tools?

When it comes to getting students to engage with the material, I find that variety is best. On occasion, I do a bit of lecture - especially if the class has been reading-heavy lately. This thread has some nice ideas for annotation:  RE: Do you have your students annotate their readings? I was frustrated by their randomness and lack of connection to previous work or knowledge. I will share my assignments from this week where I hope they improve their note-taking. 

Using the causation/comparison/contextualization tools from OER has worked well for my students. I've also try to mix it up with different approaches such as 10 most important sentences. 

Do you have a template that you can share? The idea is (or was) that they study the material on their own and then use it in class activities and assessments

Hi Michal.  I alternate between these two assignments when I give reading work.  They both have their benefits and drawbacks (depending on both the students, topic, and article).  Thought it might help.  Let me know if you're looking for anything else. 

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I alternate between different strategies.

Sometimes I adapt lectures from the readings. Early in the year, I use visual cues such as bolding relevant text and changing it's colors to scaffold shortening what's written on a slide. I try to limit my slides to no more 3 or 4 bullet points and limit the bullet points to 10 or fewer words to reduce the cognitive load.

The Cult of Pedagogy podcast also has some great resources on annotation and note taking. I really like the high school version of this group annotation activity. I used it successfully once this year and plan to work it in a few more times next year.

Regular open-note retrieval quizzes also help support note-taking. I give every student who scores 80% or higher full credit and students who score below 80% have to add whatever they missed into their notebooks and check in with me to get full credit.

 Scott Gross , I like how you integrate the note taking with other activities. It gives a legitimate need to take and keep notes.

All too often students don't see the value of notetaking. It becomes more about proof for the teacher that the student read the text.