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Notetaking strategies

Amber Llewellyn

How do you all have your students take notes? I guess a question could be: how do your students take notes? I have tried almost all the strategies that I can think of, and if I am honest, it is an area in my teaching where I still feel I am trying to find my way. At the beginning of the year, I typically go over several different types of notetaking strategies, such as Cornell notes, outline notes, and mind maps. However, when I check my students ' notebooks, I notice that their notes are mostly a mess without any strategies employed. I have tried to give them fill-in-the-blank notes, but then they seem to check out of the discussion, and I am currently using digital notebooks that we complete together, and then I quiz on the next day, which seems to have increased their test scores. So is notetaking dead? 

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  • I still make my regular world students take notes on paper.  I provide the outline from the PPT, but they are responsible for filling in with something (words, phrases, pictures, etc.).

    In my AP classes, students are presented with a basic heading and conclusion format to follow with multiple strategies available to take notes in the middle at the beginning of the year.  They still have to take notes by hand.  One set of notes is randomly collected on Fridays.

    Multiple studies have shown that taking notes by hand puts information into the long-term storage of the brain plus it forces them to condense what they are learning into something they understand.  In fact, one successful APWH teacher on our FB group used to do digital notebooks and went away from them to handwriting because her AP students learned so much better that way.  

    I still think it's an essential skill.  In the lower grades, tactile learning is considered essential, and I think notetaking falls into that category.  I also like to think of it this way.  We wouldn't tell math teachers to stop making students write down the steps in solving a math problem so notes are a similar step.

    Here's a link to my notetaking guide for my AP World History students if you're interested.

    APWH Notetaking 2022 - 2023.docx

  • in reply to Melissa Nowotarski

    Key Note:  Regular world takes notes during lecture.  APWH students take notes as homework because we're activity based in class.  Those two different situations required different strategies :).

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  • in reply to Melissa Nowotarski

    Thanks for sharing  ! I like the different variety of options you give your students. Are you having them do notes for each chapter of a textbook or unit? Do you see students use all of these styles or do most of them stick to more traditional note styles like Cornell Notes? I use Cornell Notes for each chapter of our textbook (Strayer and Nelson, Ways of the World) so by the end of the year they outline the entire book. I have been thinking of changing how I do notes with them in class and was thinking they could do one of these strategies based off the slideshow I would normally post. What do you think?

  • in reply to Marcella Sykucki

    I give them a syllabus with the readings divided for each night.  Since I'm dealing primarily with freshman that helps them with time management. I don't stay with a set book and hop around to different sources of content.  Here's an example of what students receive for Unit 8: Unit 8 Syllabus

    I don't collect one set of notes until Friday.  Students don't know which one I'm collecting until then.  Students usually find a note style that works for them, and that's the point at the beginning of the year.  Sometimes, students will switch it up between assignments.

  • in reply to Melissa Nowotarski
    Melissa Nowotarski said:
    Students usually find a note style that works for them, and that's the point at the beginning of the year. 

    I think that's awesome.  I am big fan of teaching options and then letting kids find what works best for them.