Do Your Students Take Good Notes?
A blog post from Chronicles of Higher Ed with links to three other note-taking guides. The third link includes the following tips:
- Identify key concepts in the day’s lesson: “Now here’s something you need to have in your notes. Listen carefully.”
- Challenge students to retrieve things from their notes: “Look at your notes from November 5. What have you got about X? Nothing? That’s not good.”
- Provide a definition, pause, and give students one minute to rewrite it in their own words. Ask students why it might be important to do so.
- At the beginning of the period, give students three minutes to review their notes and summarize them in a sentence. Have several students share their summary, which the class then compares, revises, etc.
- At the end of class have students trade notes with somebody sitting near them and use their partner’s notes to review the class session. Ask them to identify what was the same and different about their notes and those of their partner?
- For frequently missed exam questions, have everyone find the date when that content was covered and see what they have in their notes that relates to the question. Ask someone who got the question correct to read what they have in their notes.
- Tell students that any notes they take in class today can be used when they take the quiz tomorrow. Follow-up at the end of class by asking how that changed listening and note-taking.
