Readings vs. Notes

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.

I've decided to adapt the more general readings as lectures with guided notes and the more specific readings as reading guides for homework. I'm hoping this will work. I'm going to try an annotation strategy from New Visions that's specific for notetaking. The reading guides will count toward eligibility for test corrections.

I've decided to adapt the more general readings as lectures with guided notes and the more specific readings as reading guides for homework. I'm hoping this will work. I'm going to try an annotation strategy from New Visions that's specific for notetaking. The reading guides will count toward eligibility for test corrections.